^  $mi^m^ 


^ 


0  ^= 


Bofwers 


Life  Imprisonment  vs.  the  Death 
Penalty 


LIFE  IMPRISONMENT 


vs. 


THE  DEATH  PENALTY 


To  the  Honorable  Members  of  the  Senate  and  Lower 
House  of   the  Fifty-eighth  General  Assembly 
and  to  the  Chairman  and  Members 
of  the  Judiciary  Commit- 
tees Thereof. 


THE   BRIEF  OF  DUKE  C.  BOWERS,  Et  Als.,  Advocates 


-ON- 


Sciwtc  Bill  \o.  242  (/;/(/  House  Bill  Xo.  235.  Untitled  ".in 
.'let  to  Abolish  the  Death  Penalty  in  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
and  to  Substitute  Life  Imprisonment  Therefor." 


HISTORY  OF  CAPITAL  Pl'NISHMENT. 

In  the  early  stages  of  society  the  man  committing  homicide 
was  killed  by  the  "Avenger  of  Blood"  on  behalf  of  the  family  of 
the  man  killed,  and  not  as  representing  the  authority  of  the  State. 
That  was  the  custom  for  centuries,  till  the  mischief  of  this  prac- 
tice was  mitigated  by  the  establishment  of  cities  of  refuge,  and  in 
pagan  and  Christian  times  of  the  recognizing  of  the  sanctuary 
of  the  temple  and  the  churches.  In  the  laws  of  Khamurobi.  King 
of  Babylon  (2285-2241  B.  C.)  the  death  penalty  was  imposed  for 
many  offenses ;  the  modes  of  execution  specially  mentioned  are, 
drowning,  burning  and  impalement. 

See  Capital  Punishment.  Vol.  5,  Enc.  Britanica. 

Draco,  the  first  compiler  of  the  Penal  Code  of  Greece,  made 
death  the  penalty  for  all  offenses.  When  asked  why  he  did  so. 
replied :  "The  least  offenses  deserve  death,  and  I  can  impose  no 
worse  for  the  higher  crimes." 

Under  the  Mosaic  Code  the  law  of  vengeance  was  personified 
in  the  then  prevailing  doctrine  of  "EYE  FOR  AN  EYE,  AND  A 
TOOTH  FOR  A  TOOTH,"  in  many  instances  that  rule  being 
carried  out  literally.  In  the  dark  ages  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
under  the  rule  of  the  Saxon  and  Danish  Kings,  the  modes  of  cap- 
ital punishment  most  common  were:  "Hanging,  beheading, 
drowning,  burning,  stoning,  and  precipitation  from  rocks." 
William  the  Conquerer  would  not  permit  the  execution  of  the 
death  sentence  by  hanging  but  by  mutilation.  (5  Vol.  Enc. 
Rritanica.) 

Death  was  the  penalty  for  the  most  trivial  offenses;  for  ex- 
ample, the  cutting  of  a  tree  or  poaching  deer.  In  1800  there  were 
over  200  capital  crimes  in  Great  Britain  and  t8o  in  1819.  Men 
were  hung  and  quartered  for  oft'enses  which  now  would  be  re- 
garded as  nn'sdemeanors,  while  the  learned  clergy  and  statesmen 
looked   on    with   approval   and   apjilause.     During   the   reign   of 

—  2  — 


^L 


Henry  the  \'III,  72,000  persons  were  executed.  The  first  allevi- 
ation came  from  the  extension  of  the  benefit  of  clergy  to  all  per- 
sons who  coiilfl  read  the  "Xeck-verse"  (Ps.  Li.  5,  i  ). 

"At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  criminal  laws  of  all 
Europe  were  ferocious  and  indiscriminate,"  says  the  author  of 
"Capital  Punishment,"  in  Vol.  5,  page  279,  Enclycopedia  Britanica, 
in  its  administration  of  capital  punishment  for  almost  all  grave 
crimes.  yet  such  forms  of  crime  were  far  more  numer- 

ous than  they  are  now."  The  best  blood  of  England  drenched 
the  execution  block,  and  "Kech."  the  legal  executioner,  became 
more  infamous  than  Rob  Roy.  the  banflidt.  Death  was  a  panacea 
for  all  ills. 

The  States  of  our  Union  adopted  the  common  law  of  England 
replete  with  capital  offenses,  but  Tennessee,  by  statute,  has  finally 
limited  the  number,  in  practice  at  least,  to  two,  murder  and  rape ; 
but  the  statute  names  other  oflfenses.  and  hanging  is  the  mode  of 
execution. 

In  Belgium  no  execution  hasf  taken  place  since  1863 ;  in  Fin- 
land since  1824;  in  Holland  since  i860,  and  was  totally  abolished 
in  1870.  Xo  executions  in  Norway  since  1876.  abolished  in  1905  ; 
abolished  in  Portugal  in  1867;  in  Roumania  in  1864.  Russia 
abolished  capital  punishment,  except  for  military  ofiFenses,  in 
T750.  but  later  restored  it  for  a  short  period,  only  to  again  abolish 
it  in  1907.  Only  7  out  of  22  Cantons  in  Switzerland  have  it,  and 
Italy  revoked  the  law  in  1888. 

In  the  United  States  the  number  of  capital  crimes  has  been  re- 
duced in  recent  years  to  only  four,  and  the  following  States  have 
abolished  it :  Maine,  in  1876,  restored  it  in  1883,  but  again  re- 
pealed the  law  in  1887  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Governor 
of  said  State;  Rhode  Island,  in  1853;  Wisconsin,  in  1853.  and 
Kansas,  in  1901,  but  there  have  been  no  legal  executions  in 
Kansas  since  1872;  Michigan  in  1847. 

—  3  — 


BRIEF  AXD  ARGUMENT. 

It  is  now  proposed  to  repeal  the  law  of  blood  and  vengeance 
in  Tennessee,  and  make  life  imprisonment  the  maximum  punish- 
ment in  ^aid  State. 

The  two  main  objects  in  enforcing  our  criminal  laws  are  (a) 
to  protect  society,  (b)  to  reform  the  criminal.  Some  would  add 
a  third  reason  for  punishing  criminals,  namely,  to  punish  the 
criminal  himself,  but  in  this  day  of  brotherly  love,  when  we  are 
taught  lo  love  our  enemies,  and  when  charity  and  love  have 
irium])hcd  over  vengeance  and  hatred  no  one  would  seri(nisly 
Insist  that  the  State  any  more  has  the  right  to  kill  a  man  to 
avenge  the  death  of  his  victim  than  has  an  individual. 

Every  man  will  agree  with  us  on  this  one  point:  if  social  con- 
ditions will  not  be  made  worse  by  the  abolition  of  the  death  pen- 
alty, then  it  should  be  abolished.  The  only  way  we  have  to 
determine  this  question  is  by  taking  the  statistics  from  the  States 
with  and  without  the  death  penalty. 

St.\T1STICAL  Ai5STR.'\CT. 

According  to  the  mortality  statistics  compiled  by  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Statistics,  and  published  in  1912.  in  table  5, 
page  376,  the  number  of  homicides  per  100,000  poindation  for  the 
eighteen  States  composing  the  registration  area  was  as  follows : 

State.              1900    '01      '02     '03     '04     "05  '06  '07  '08     '09 
California — 

Cities 9.0  13.2  10.6  10.2 

Rural 6.8  8.3  12.1     9.8 

Colorado — 

Cities 10.4     7.4  18.7     9.0 

Rural 13.9  18.0  15.6  12.4 

Connecticut- 
Cities    0.3     0.5 

Rural 

—  4  — 


0.6 

0-3 

1.8 

2.0 

2-5 

3-^ 

2.8 

0.9 

0.9 

1-5 

17 

7^-7 

5-1 

Indiana — 

Cities    .  .  . 

.     I.T 

2.4 

2.0 

1-4 

31 

4-8 

5-7 

7.0 

9.1 

8.0 

Rural    .  .  . 

•    1-5 

0.5 

0.6 

1.2 

0.7 

2.7 

30 

3-6 

2.9 

2.7 

Maine- 

Cities    .... 

1-7 

2-5 

2.4 

3-2 

0.6 

2.2 

0.6 

I.I 

Rural    .... 

'•/ 

I/) 

03 

I.O 

2.0 

0.4 

1.6 

1.4 

I.I 

Maryland — • 

• 

- 

Cities    .... 

4.7 

7-Z 

3-8 

3-4 

Rural    .  .  . 

2.3 

2.6 

3-9 

3-8 

Massachusetts- 

— 

Cities    .... 

0.7 

r.i 

T-3 

t-3 

1-5 

1-5 

1.8 

2.7 

2.6 

2-5 

Rural    .... 

1.2 

1-3 

0.6 

0.7 

03 

0.4 

0.6 

0.4 

1-9 

2.3 

Michigan — 

Cities    .... 

0.7 

I.I 

1-5 

1-4 

1.0 

0.9 

1-3 

3-2 

4.1 

2.2 

Rural    .... 

0.7 

1.6 

1.2 

1-3 

1.0 

0-5 

1.0 

1-7 

2.2 

2.2 

New  Hampshire — 

Cities    .... 

1.2 

1.2 

0.6 

1-7 

Rural    .... 

0.4 

0.4 

0.8 

0.4 

2.8 

0.8 

1.2 

New  Jersey — 

Cities    .... 

1-7 

0.9 

14 

0.7 

1-3 

1.8 

2.9 

4.2 

3-7 

4-7 

Rural   

0.1 

0.1 

0.8 

0.2 

0.9 

1-4 

2.5 

3-2 

4.6 

2.9 

New  York — 

Cities    .... 

2.00 

1.8 

2.0 

1-4 

2.2 

3-5 

5-0 

6.1 

5-3 

4-4 

Rural    

0.2 

0.4 

0.3 

0.5 

05 

0.6 

1.8 

3-3 

3-6 

3-3 

Ohio- 

Cities    .... 

7A 

Rural    .... 

2.8 

Pennsylvania — 

Cities    .... 

5-8 

6.5 

50 

4-7 

Rural 4.5     4.8     4.9     4.1 

—  5  — 


Kliodc  Island — 

Cities    ....   2.5     2.8     2.7     2.3     3.5     2.5     3.9     5.5     4-2     30 
Rural    J.X     0.7     4.0     1.9     1.9     0.6     2.3     i.i     3.3     2.1 

South  Dakota — 

Cities 74     7-2 

Uinal 2.1     2.6     3.8     2.2 

\  rnnoiit — 

Cities 2.0     2.0       ..      3.9     3.8     3.8 

Riiral     0.3     0.3     0.3     0.3     2.0     I.O     1.3     2.3     3.8 

\\  asliington — 

Cities II-7     8.1 

Rural 6.3     4.2 

W'isoousin — 

Cities 31     1-9 

Rural 1.6     1.7 

It  will  thus  be  seeu  by  reiorriug  to  the  statistics  quoted  above 
that  for  the  ton-year  period,  beginning-  with  1900,  the  average 
number  *>l"  homicides  in  the  States  where  capital  punishment  has 
been  alx^lished  per  hundred  thousand  population  was :  Maine. 
2.5;  Michigan.  3.8;  Rhode  Island.  5:  and  for  the  two  years. 
i<)t">8  and  H)c>).  for  which  Wisconsin  retorted  her  homicides,  she 
averaged  4.1.  but  decreased  in  1900  over  the  previous  year.  In 
si^mo  of  the  States  where  capital  punishment  prevailed  we  find 
that  for  a  ten-year  period,  beginning  with  the  year  1900.  the  aver- 
age number  of  homicides  per  100.000  population  was :  Indiana, 
(>.4;  New  Jersey,  .4;  New  York,  4.8:  and  for  the  four  years 
reiH^rted  by  Tennsylvania  an  average  of  9.8.  Ohio  reports  for 
the  year  ux'*!)  only,  giving  10.2:  California  for  a  four-year  period 
.-bows  twenty  homicides  per  Ii.k">.o.x">  jx^pnlation.  While  Massa- 
chusetts only  shows  an  average  of  2:57  for  each  100.000  popula- 
tion, tlie  increase  in  that  State  from  ux>5  to  190*)  was  100  per 
cent.    It  will  bo  further  seen  that  California.  Connecticut.  Ma5isa- 

—  6  — 


chusetts.  Indiana,  New  Jersey.  New  York,  Fenniiyhania  and 
\'emK»nt,  where  capital  punishment  obtains,  and  where  it  is  en- 
forced rigidly,  shows  an  increase  in  the  ninnber  ot  homicides 
for  the  period  reported  in  the  above  statistics,  while  of  the  four 
States  that  have  abolished  the  death  penalty,  only  Michigan  sIk^ws 
an  increase,  which  is  sligiit.  but  her  general  average  lor  .»  ten- 
year  period  is  less  tlian  either  of  the  States  that  have  retained  the 
death  penaltj-,  with  the  exception  of  X'ermont  and  \ew  Hamiv 
shire :  ahd  that  they  have  increased  their  homicide  rate  per  annum 
continually,  while  Michigan  shows  a  decrease  in  nx>)  over  the 
preN-ious  year.  Besides,  the  record  shows  that  the  death  penatly 
has  been  abolished  in  Wmiont  and  Xew  Hampshire  !>v  pn»oiioo 
for  twent}'  years. 

The  general  average  for  the  j^eriod  re^x^rted  in  ilic  aUne  tabic 
of  statistics  for  the  four  States  where  the  death  ^xMialty  has  been 
revoked  is  3.85  per  100.000  population,  while  for  the  States  in- 
flicting the  death  penalty,  for  the  period  rejx>rtevl.  the  general 
average  is  S.25.  or  nearly  115  per  cent  greater.  The  avcrai;\?  hom- 
icidal rate  in  Tennessee  was  five  times  greater  than  in  either  of 
the  abolition  States. 

While  we  were  unable  to  got  the  statistics  on  this  ciuestioil 
from  Kansas,  we  arc  reliably  informed  that  the  number  01  homi- 
cides in  that  State  per  capita  is  comparatively  small,  and  in  a 
recent  letter  from  the  secretary  of  the  presem  Governor  of  tliat 
State  he  informs  us  that  the  pa^ple  there  arc  universally  pleasoil 
with  the  workings  of  tlic  now  law  abolisliin>^  tlu-  lioath  penalty, 
and  that  there  is  no  disposition  to  restore  capital  punishment  in 
that  State.  It  will  be  rcmemborod  that  tlioro  has  novor  boon  a 
legal  execution  in  that  State  since  187J.  tlio  liovornors  in  their 
discretion  failing  to  sign  the  death  warrants  at  ilic  end  oi  one 
year's  imprisonment,  as  the  law  required. 

THE  RESULTS  DRTAIXED  IN  FOREIGN  Gt^^N- 
TRIES  FROM  THE  ABOLITION  OF  rill-.  Dl-.  A  III 
PENALTY  ARE  NO  LESS  BENEIHGTAT,  Til  \\  IM  Ol'k 
OWN  STATES. 

—  7  — 


We  take  the  folic )\viiii,^  facts  and  statistics  from  Report  No. 
io8  on  capital  crimes  of  the  Fifty-fourth  I'nited  States  Conj^ress, 
first  session,  printed  January  22,  1896,  by  order  of  the  House  of 
Representatives : 

BELGIUM. — "The  penalty  of  death  has  not  been  abolished 
in  IJeigium,  but  since  1866  it  has  not  been  executed.  In  order 
for  one  to  appreciate  the  results,  the  following  statistics  are 
given:  For  the  period  from  1831  to  1890,  in  the  first  thirty-five 
years  there  were  321  capital  condemnations,  which  was  at  the 
rate  of  9.17  per  year.  In  the  twenty-five  years  following  the 
cessation  of  executions  there  were  201,  which  was  at  the  rate  of 
8.004,  showing  a  decrease  of  1.1696." 

COSTA  RICA. — "The  results  of  the  abolition  of  capital  pun- 
ishment for  all  offenses  in  Costa  Rica  are  considered  very  favor- 
able, thus  confirming  public  sentiment  against  capital  punish- 
ment." 

IIATI. — "The  Constitution  of  1879  abolished  the  death  pen- 
alty for  political  ofTenses.  Since  the  period  of  said  abolition 
political  crimes  have  not  been  more  frequent." 

HOLLAND. — "There  has  been  no  increase  of  crime  since 
the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty." 

ITALY. — "Since  the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty  by  the 
new  Common  Penal  Code,  which  went  into  force  January  i,  1890, 
the  results  obtained  up  to  this  present  time  have  fully  realized 
the  expectations  cherished  by  Parliament,  by  public  opinion,  and 
by  students  of  criminal  matters ;  that  is  to  say,  social  security  has 
not  been  (listurl)C(l  or  diminished  by  it,  and  consequently  the  con- 
ditions of  high  criminality  have  not  been  rendered  worse." 

NORWAY. — "Since  1874  it  is  made  discretionary  with  the 
Courts,  of  death  or  hard  labor  for  life,  since  which  time  a  ma- 
joi^ity  of  the  latter  cases  have  been  imposed,  and  no  bad  conse- 
quences, so  far  as  public  safety  is  concerned,  have  been  observed." 

PORTITIAL.— "The  death  penalty  was  abolished  bv  the  law 


on  the  first  of  July,  1867,  and  the  number  of  homicides  to  which 
this  penahy  was  apphed  lias  diminished  durins^  the  succeedino^ 
years." 

SWITZERLAND. — "Since  1874  capital  punishment  has  been 
abolished  in  fifteen  of  the  twenty-two  Cantons  in  Switzerland." 

The  only  light  we  have  to  guide  our  advancing  footsteps  in 
enacting  ])rogrcssive  legislation  is  the  unerring  light  of  experi- 
ence. The  record  shows  that  the  death  penalty  has  been  abolished 
in  Michigan  for  sixty-six  years;  in  Rhode  Island  for  sixty-one 
years;  in  Wisconsin  for  sixty  years;  in  Maine  for  thirty-seven 
years,  and  in  Kansas  by  i)ractice  for  about  fifty  years,  and  re- 
cently by  statute,  and  yet  those  enlightened  and  progressive  States 
have  discovered  no  good  reason  for  repealing  these  laws  that  have 
been  in  force  for  over  a  half  century  in  most  instances.  That 
alone  should  be  sufficient  to  convince  that  the  abolition  statutes 
have  vindicated  their  existence.  Besides,  is  it  a  mere  coin- 
cidence that  the  States  that  have  so  long  foregone  the  death  pen- 
alty have  less  than  one-half  the  number  of  homicides  of  the  States 
that  foster  executions  ?  Is  it  only  a  coincidence  that  homicides  in 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  \'ermont  and  New  Hampshire  have 
increased  over  previous  years,  while  in  their  sister  State  of 
Maine,  where  life  imprisonment  is  the  highest  penalty,  the  num- 
ber of  homicides  have  decreased  in  the  same  period.  In  1909  the 
three  States  named  above  registered  a  total  of  homicides  per 
100,000  population  as  follows  :  Massachusetts,  4.8 ;  Connecticut, 
7.9 ;  Vermont,  7.6,  while  in  Maine,  for  the  same  period,  2.2  for  the 
same  ratio  is  shown. 

Making  further  comparisons  for  the  year  1909,  we  find  reg- 
istered homicides  per  100,000  as  follows:  Michigan,  4.4;  Wis- 
consin, 3.6,  and  Rhode  Island,  5.1,  as  against  the  death  penaltv 
■States  as  follows:  Indiana,  10.7;  Ohio,  10.2;  Pennsylvania,  8.8; 
New  York,  y.y;  New  Jersey,  7.6;  Colorado,  21.4;  California,  20; 
Maryland,  7.2;  New  Hampshire,  2.9;  South  Dakota,  9.4;  Wash- 
ington.   T2.3.     Can   all  of  the  above  facts,   so   favorpbic  \^  tho 

—  9  — 


States  that  have  abolished  the  death  penalty,  be  attributed  to 
mere  chance? 

In  the  same  year  the  number  of  homicides  per  million  people 
in  the  four  abolition  States  was  thirty-five;  there  were  eighty- 
five  in  the  death  penalty  States  per  million  population.  While  in 
1904,  taking  the  whole  United  States,  the  ratio  was  104.4  per 
million,  while  Maine,  for  the  same  year,  registers  24  for  each 
million  inhabitants;  Michigan,  20,  and  Rhode  Island  reports  51, 
or  nearly  one-half  the  general  average  for  all  the  States. 

The  record  further  shows  that  from  1885  to  1904  homicides 
increased  from  32.2  per  million  people  to  104.4  for  the  same 
ratio.  This  is  the  face  of  the  facts  that  capital  punishment  was 
in  full  force  in  every  State  in  the  Union  but  four  or  five. 

The  foreign  States  that  have  abolished  it  not  only  refuse  to 
reinstate  it,  but  the  reports  above  quoted  show  that  criminal  con- 
ditions are  in  all  instances  as  good,  and  in  some  reported  better, 
than  before  the  abolition  of  the  death  penalty. 

After  centuries  of  observation  and  experience,  the  learned 
Judges  of  England  and  America  established  a  rule  making  a  pre- 
ponderance of  evidence  in  civil  cases  the  guide  for  tliemselves 
and  juries  in  deciding  questions  of  disputed  facts.  That  is  the 
only  true  rule.  Then,  have  we  not  proven  our  case  by  an  over- 
whelming preponderance  of  the  proof?  The  evidence  based  on 
actual  experience  in  our  States  and  in  foreign  States  is  so  near 
unanimous  in  favor  of  its  abolition  that  it  is  a  mere  exception 
to  a  general  rule  that  a  fact  militates  against  it. 

BUT  YOU  ASK,  "WHY  WOULD  LEGAL  EXECUTIONS 
INCREASE  CAPITAL  CRIMES? 

Because  crime  is  largely  a  disease,  and  the  demoralizing  eflfect 
of  a  legal  execution,   and  the  example  thus  set  by  the   State  ■ 
arouses  the  criminal  natures  and  cheapens  life  in  the  estimation 
of  the  criminally  inclined.     Like  begets  like  in  this  respect,  as 
sure  as   night    follows   day.      We  cannot   put  it  better  than   to 

—  10  — 


quote  from  Mrs.  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox's  beautiful  poem  on  cap- 
ital punishment : 

"And  last  the  people,  frenzied  o«r  dejjressed 

By  sight  or  sound,  or  knowledge  of  the  deed. 
Are  wronged  and  injured  by  the  law's  effect ; 
Crime  follows  executions ;  thought  breeds  thought, 
And  as  from  thistledown  new  thistles  s])ring. 

So  violent  actions  to  disorders  lead. 
That  vengeful  God  of  Hebraic  Lore 
Has  blocked  the  progress  of  the  world  too  long. 
When  Science  seeks  the  cause,  and  Love  the  cure, 
Then  crime  will  vanish  from  the  human  race." 

Did  you  ever  for  a  moment  contemplate  the  moral  wrecks, 
and  devastation,  and  depravity  that  follow  in  the  wake  of  war  and 
of  active  armies?  If  anything,  it  is  worse  than  the  active  warfare 
itself.  Notwithstanding  the  guerrilla,  if  caught  either  by  the 
Federal  or  Confederate,  knew  he  would  be  shot  by  his  captors, 
hundreds  of  formerly  honorable  men,  or  at  least  apparently  so, 
became  sutlers,  ghouls,  horse  thieves  and  common  robbers,  and 
even  little  value  or  respect  was  placed  on  the  virtue  of  our  wom- 
anhood. Some  of  the  women  themselves  were  contaminated  by 
the  general  moral  stagnation,  and  many  yielded  to  the  degen- 
eracy of  the  times.  Human  life,  especially,  became  so  cheap,  in 
the  estimation  of  the  people,  that  murder  became  the  rule  instad 
of  the  exception. 

The  Government  itself  was  engaged  in  the  vocation  of  killing; 
the  citizen,  or  at  least  the  criminally  inclined,  put  no  higher  value 
on  life  than  his  Government,  and  that  is  always  true. 

If  we  are  to  teach  our  citizenship  that  life  is  sacred  we  must 
not  take  it  by  law,  nor  even  by  law  sanction  it.  As  an  example, 
the  Quakers  even  refuse  to  go  to  war  or  for  any  reason  take  life, 
and  they  do  not  commit  nmrders. 

But  you  may  say  it  deters  others  from  committing  crimes. 
If  that  is  so.  why  have  States  that  do  not  kill  the  smallest  homi- 

—  11  — 


cidal   rate  per  capita?     Why  are  such   crimes   increasing   while 
the  death  penahy  is  beings  enforced? 

If  it  deters  to  kill  by  hanging-  or  electrocuting,  it  would  cer- 
tainly act  as  a  much  stronger  deterrent  if  you  would,  as  of  old. 
torture  and  mutilate  the  murderer?  You  say  that  would  be  too 
cruel  and  barbarous  and  would  demoralize  the  public  and  even 
brutalize  men.  Well,  the  majority  of  the  people  think  inflicting 
the  death  penalty  is  too  cruel  and  barbarous,  and  that  the  ma- 
jority of  people  think  so  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  the  great 
majority  of  the  people  want  the  condemned  man  cummuted  to 
'ife  imprisonment  in  each  instance.  Our  descendants  a  century 
hence  will  look  back  on  our  legal  executions  with  the  same  aver- 
sion and  horror,  and  denounce  us  as  we  do  our  ancestors  who 
burnt  at  the  stake  and  mutilated  the  body  of  the  condemned,  or 
caused  it  to  hang,  for  weeks,  as  a  warning. 

Dr.  A.  B.  Martin,  Dean  of  the  Lebanon  Law  School  of  Cum- 
berland L^niversity,  gives  a  demonstrative  illustration  from  his 
own  observations,  that  hanging  does  not  deter  others  from  com- 
mitting crimes. 

A  man  was  to  be  hanged  on  the  Public  Square,  in  Lebanon, 
Tenn.,  and  the  gallow^s  was  erected;  two  enterprising  (we  think 
infamously  so)  young  men  erected  an  arena  around  the  scaffold, 
and  on  the  day  of  the  hanging  were  present  and  collected  a 
great  deal  of  money  for  their  seats.  W^tihin  one  and  a  half  years 
both  of  the  men  were  hanged  for  the  same  offense  for  which 
the  victim  that  they  had  exploited  was  executed. 

Some  of  the  most  shocking  crimes  follow  closely  the  most 
notorious  executions.  For  example,  the  Aliens  murdered  Judge 
Massey  and  four  others  in  the  Court  House  at  Hillsville,  Va., 
while  the  papers  of  said  State  were  heralding  the  news  of  the 
execution  of  the  noted  wife  murderer,  H.  C.  Beattie. 

The  assassination  of  Rosenthal  in  New  York  City  followed 
closely  on  tlie  heels  of  the  execution  of  four  men  in  \ew  York 
State  within  one  hour. 

—  12  — 


Instances  are  reiJ(jrtc(l  in  which  the  spectators  at  a  hanging 
in  luigland  for  picking  pockets  committed  the  same  ofifense  for 
which  the  victim  was  being  executed. 

ANOTHER  REASON  WHY  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT 
SHOULD  BE  ABOLISHED  IS,  THAT  INNOCENT  MEN 
ARE  SOMETIMES  EXECUTED. 

Says  Horace  Greely :  "I  dread  human  frailty.  Men  are 
prejudiced,  passionate,  and  too  often  irrational.  Today  they 
shout.  'Hosanna,'  and  tomorrow  howl'  'Crucify  him.'  I  would 
save  them  from  the  harsher  consequences  of  their  frenzy.  Our 
.Savior  is  by  no  means  a  solitary  example  of  the  unjust  execution 
of  the  innocent  and  just.  Socrates,  Cicero,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
Algernon  Sidney.  John  Huss.  Michael  Servetus,  Louis  XVI, 
the  Due  d'Enghine,  Mar.shal  Xey.  Riego,  Xagi  Sandor,  ]\Iaxi- 
milian.  are  among  the  conspicuous  instances  of  victims  of  the 
law  of  blood.  We  have  recorded  instances  of  innocent  men  con- 
victed of  murder  on  their  own  confession,  of  men  convicted, 
sentenced  and  hanged  for  offenses  whereof  they  were  in  no  wise 
guilty.  Men  may  suffer  unjustly,  even  though  death  be  stricken 
from  the  list  of  penalties,  but  to  be  imprisoned  and  stripped  of 
property  is  quite  endurable  compared  with  the  infliction  of  an 
ignominious  death  in  the  presence  and  for  the  delectation  of  a 
howling  mob  of  exulting  human  brutes.  So  long  as  man  is 
liable  to  error  I  w^ould  have  him  reserve  the  possibility  of  correct- 
ing his  mistakes  and  redressing  the  wrong  he  is  misled  into  per- 
petrating." 

Mr.  B.  Paul  Newman,  writing  for  the  Eortnightly  Review, 
September.  1889,  says:  "Some  time  ago  Sir  James  Mcintosh,  a 
most  cool  and  dispassionate  observer,  declared  that,  taking  a  long 
period  of  time,  one  innocent  man  was  hanged  in  every  three 
years.  The  late  Chief  P>aron  Kelley  stated  as  the  result  of  his 
experience  that  from  1802  to  1840  no  fwer  than  twenty-two  inno- 
cent men  had  been  sentenced  to  death,  of  whom  seven  were  actu- 
ally executd.  These  terrible  mistakes  are  not  confined  to  Eng- 
land ;   Mittermaier  refers  to  cases  of  a  similar  kind  in   Ireland, 

—  13  — 


Italy,  France,  and  Germany.  In  comparatively  recent  years 
ther  have  been  several  striking  instances  of  the  fallibility  of  the 
most  carefully  constituted  tribunals.  In  1865,  for  instance,  an 
Italian  named  Pelizzioni  was  tried  before  Baron  Martin  for  the 
murder  of  a  fellow  countryman  in  an  affray  at  Saffron  Hill. 
•After  an  elaborate  trial  he  was  found  gfuilty  and  sentenced  to 
death.  In  passing  sentence,  the  Judge  "took  occasion  to  make 
the  following  remarks,  which  should  be  remembered  when  the 
acumen  begotten  of  'sound  legal  training'  and  long  experience  is 
relied  on  as  a  safeguard  against  error:  'In  my  judgment,  it  is 
utterly  impossible  for  the  jury  to  have  come  to  any  other  con- 
clusion. The  evidence  was  about  the  clearest  and  most  direct 
that,  after  a  long  course  of  experience  in  the  administration  of 
criminal  justice,  I  have  ever  known.  I  am  as  satisfied  as  I  can 
be  of  anything  that  Gregorio  did  not  inflict  this  wound,  and  that 
you  were  the  person  who  did.' 

"The  trial  was  over.  The  Home  Secretary  would  most  cer- 
tainly, after  the  Judge's  expression  of  opinion,  never  have  inter- 
fered. The  date  of  the  execution  was  fixed.  Yet  the  unhappy 
prisoner  was  guiltless  of  the  crime,  and  it  was  only  through  the 
exertion  of  a  private  individual  that  an  innocent  man  was  saved 
from  the  gallows.  A  fellow  countryman  of  his,  a  Mr.  Negretti, 
succeeded  in  persuading  the  real  culprit  (the  Gregorio  so  ex- 
pressly exculpated  by  the  Judge)  to  come  forward  and  acknowl- 
edge the  crim-e.  He  was  subsequently  tried  for  manslaughter  and 
convicted,  while  Pellizioni  received  a  free  pardon. 

".Vgain.  in  1877,  two  men  named  Jackson  and  Greenwood 
were  tried  at  the  Liverpool  Assizes  for  a  serious  offense.  They 
were  found  guilty.  The  Judge  expressed  approval  of  the  verdict 
and  sentenced  them  to  ten  years'  penal  servitude.  Subsequently 
fresh  facts  came  to  light  and  the  men  received  a  free  pardon. 

"Once  more,  in  1879.  Hebron  was  tried  for  the  murder  of  a 
lK>liceman.  He  was  found  guilty  and  sentenced  to  death.  An 
agitation  for  a  reprieve  immediately  followed.  The  sentence  was 
commuted  to  penal  servitude  for  life.     Three  )'ears  after,  the 

—  14  — 


notorious  Peace,  just  before  his  execution  for  the  murder  of  Mr. 
Diason,  confessed  that  he  had  committed  the  murder  for  which 
Hebron  had  been  sentenced." 

Mr.  Charles  Burleig^h  Galbraith,  writing  for  Friend's  IntelH- 
gencer  for  October  6,  1906,  says :  "Juries  and  Judj^es  are  still 
falliable."  Maud  Ballington  Booth,  writing-  under  date  of  Sep- 
tember, 1908,  gives  details  to  two  interesting  cases:  "A  man  was 
sentenced  to  life  imprisonment  and  served  sixteei,  and  a  half 
years.  Most  of  the  evidence  had  been  purely  circumstantial  and 
he  was  convicted  mainly  on  the  testimony  of  one  witness.  He 
was  saved  from  the  gallows  only  by  the  earnest  efforts  of  those 
who  had  known  of  his  previous  good  character.  Last  winter  the 
woman  who  had  been  the  main  witness  against  him  came  to  whal 
she  believed  was  her  death  bed,  and,  sending  for  a  priest,  con- 
fessed that  she  had  committed  perjury.  The  matter  was  brought 
to  the  attention  of  the  Governor,  and  the  man  at  once  liberated. 
He  still  lives.  The  State  took  sixteen  years  of  his  liberty,  but  did 
not  shed  his  innocent  blood." 

"At  present  I  know  a  man."  continues  Mrs.  Booth,  "who  has 
served  nine  years  and  is  still  in  prison,  where  he  has  been  visited 
by  the  boy  whom  he  was  supposed  to  have  murdered. 

"The  fact  that,  in  our  day,  justice  may  thus  miscarry,  must 
give  men  constant  pause  before  they  seek  remedial  vengeance  in 
the  death  penalty." 

Mr.  Buttram,  present  .Attorney-General  for  the  Second  Judi- 
cial District  of  Tennessee,  in  talking  to  me  recently,  said :  "I  am 
against  capital  punishment  because  men  are  too  liable  to  err.  Be- 
fore I  was  elected  Attorney-General,  a  white  man  was  convicted 
in  my  county  of  murder  in  the  first  degree.  He  pleaded  acci- 
dental killing.  He  v.as  a  ]xwr  fellow,  and  the  C<nirt  had  ap- 
pointed a  lawver  to  defend  him.  I  thought  at  the  time  the  verdict 
was  rendered  that  the  jury  had  erred.  The  peoj^le  were  bitter 
against  him  and  had  threatened  to  lynch  him.  Some  of  the  jury 
wanted  to  hang  him  outright,  but  they  finally  reported  mitigating 

—  15  — 


/ 


I 


circumstances  as  a  pari  of  their  verdict  and  tlic  juds^e  sentenced 
the  i)ris(»ner  to  hfe  imprisonment,  l-'rom  later  developments  it 
became  evident  that  the  man  was  innocent,  and  tor  that  reason 
riovernor  ncM)per  pardoned  him  recently. 

Mr.  Scruggs,  former  Secretary  to  ex-Governor  Patterson, 
states  on  his  honor  that,  while  he  was  serving  as  said  ex-Gov- 
ernor's Secretary,  an  innocent  negro  was  hanged,  as  it  developed 
subsequent  to  the  hanging. 

.Mr.  Duke  C  ilowors  had  a  cousin  convicted  on  a  charge  of 
murder  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  but  his  sentence  was  com- 
muted to  life  imprisonment  by  the  Governor  of  Texas,  through 
the  intervention  of  the  prisoner's  w'ife.  After  serving  twelve 
\ears.  the  man  who  had  committed  the  murder  for  which  the 
prisoner  was  sentenced  confessed  on  his  dying  bed  that  he  had 
committed  said  offense,  and  the  prisoner  was  released. 

From  experience  and  observation,  we  know  that  manv  men 
who  are  innocent  are  convicted  of  various  grades  of  crime,  and 
that  the  greater  the  crime  tlu'  more  it  arouses  the  passions  of 
men.  and  the  more  a])t  to  ])rocure  an  unjust  \'erdict  through 
iM'ejudice.  Every  lawyer  knows  how  eas\'  it  is  to  convict  the 
poor  and  friendless  fellow  charged  with  crime,  and  how  hard  to 
convict  the  man  who  has  the  influence  and  "pull."  The  present 
laws  and  practice  foster  extremes  in  both  of  said  instances. 
Thus  in  the  name  of  Justice,  in  order  to  vindicate  -a  barbarous 
law.  the  State  itself  commits  murder. 

S(  )rTOT/)GIC.\T.  RKAS(  )N. 

There  is  another  reason,  almost  fundamental,  why  society 
.^hould  not  execute  its  befallen  uiembers.  That  rea.son  is  a 
sociological  one.  Experience  shows  that  the  great  niajoritv  of 
criminals  are  either  born  criminals  or  their  invironment  pro- 
moted criminal  instincts  and  even  criminal  traits.  Had  organzed 
government  done  its  duty  towards  him.  he  never  would  have 
been  a  criminal.     .\n   investigation  of  the   penitentiaries  shows 

—  16  — 


that  the  majority  are  illiterate.  Many  of  them  have  had  no  moral 
or  religious  training,  and,  of  course,  none  of  them  arc  criminals 
from  choice.  They  are  "weak  vessels,"  depraved  degenerates, 
and.  in  manv  instances,  monomaniacs.  Yet  they  hollo,  "PTang 
him." 

It  is  estimated  by  sociologists  who  have  scientifically  studied 
the  question  that  90  per  cent  of  the  crimes  would  have  been  pre- 
vented had  care,  and  prudence,  and  charity  been  exercised  by  the 
State  and  muinicpal  governments.  For  example,  the  four  gun- 
men of  New  York  City  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  They  are  vic- 
tims of  environment.  They  had  been  agents  for  gambling  houses 
and  houses  of  ill-fame,  and  divided  their  spoils  with  the  officers 
of  the  law  elected  by  the  people  of  a  great  city.  In  that  manner 
the  agents  of  society  educated  them  in  crime,  and  yet  the  State 
says  they  must  forfeit  their  blood  to  the  State  that  trained  them 
in  vice.  They  had  been  trained  in  ihe  underworld  from  infancy 
to  commit  crimes  till  they  became  callous  and  did  not  scruple  in 
taking  life. 

No  State  has  the  right  to  kill  men  when  it  contributes 
to  their  downfall.  It  owes  them  the  duty  to  educate  them  and 
throw  nothing  but  moral  influences  around  them,  and  when  it 
fails,  organized  society  is  at  fault.  You  may  ask,  "What  will  we 
do  with  them?" 

Why,  do  your  duty  towards  them,  by  placing  them  in  a  prison, 
reformatory  in  its  character,  and  teach  them  morality,  and,  if 
necessary,  give  them  mental  training,  and  allow  them  the  right  to 
expirate  their  crimes  and  prepare  for  the  hereafter.  Make  men 
out  of  them,  and  give  them  in  the  most,  if  not  all  instances,  the 
hope  that  they  will  be  rewarded  if  they  will  reform 
and  become  worthy  of  again  taking  their  places  among  their 
fellowmen. 


—  17 


THK  FALLACY  L\  Till-:  PLEA  KOR  "RETRIBUTIVP: 
JUSTICE."     ' 

But  a  few  will  say  in  this  enlightened  day  even,  that  the 
criminal  should  be  punished  measure  for  measure  for  his  crime. 
That  is  the  old  spirit  of  blood  and  vengeance  that  perished 
nearly  two  thousand  years  ago.  That  was  a  failure  even  under 
the  old  Jewish  law.  under  which  the  penalty  for  every  offense 
but  one  was  death.  Cain.  Moses,  Lamech.  David,  Simon  and 
Levi  were  all  murders,  yet  none  were  deprived  of  their  lives  on 
that  account.  Under  that  old  law  of  revenge,  the  wife  who  be- 
lieved in  a  different  God  from  her  husband  forfeited  her  life, 
and  slavery  and  polygamy  were  as  much  sanctioned  by  God  as 
the  law  of  murder,  and  yet  no  one  would  say  it  was  not  right 
to  abolish  them. 

When  Christ  came  and  died  for  his  enemies,  he  impliedly 
forbade  us  to  kill  our  enemies.  He  forgave  his  murderers,  say- 
ing, "Father,  forgive  them, for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
F'ather  Mathew  says:  "I  have  been  in  the  ministry  for  thirty 
years,  and  I  have  never  yet  discovered  that  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity has  delegated  to  any  man  any  right  to  take  away  the  life 
of  his  fellow-man."  I  did  not  intend  going  into  that  phase  of 
the  case,  but  refer  you  to  the  articles  printed  in  the  appendix 
hereto. 

.     ABOLITION  WOULD  NOT  INCREASE  LYNCHING. 

It  is  claimed  by  the  advocates  of  the  death  penalty  that  if 
it  is  abrogated,  it  would  increase  lynching.  Here  again  statistics 
come  to  our  aid.  In  the  State  that  have  abolished  the  death 
penalty  there  has  not  been  a  lynching  in  several  years,  while 
there  were  eighteen  men  in  the  United  States  last  year  who  were 
executed  for  rape,  from  January  i,  1912.  to  November  15,  1912; 
fifteen  were  lynched,  leaving  only  three.  We  do  not  think  con- 
ditions would  be  made  worse. 

A  learned  statesman  and  criminologist  has  said :  'The  death 
penalty  as  inflicted  by  governments  is  a  perpetual  excuse  for 
mobs.     The  greatest  danger  in  a  republic  is  a  mob,  and  as  long 

—  18  — 


as  States  inflict  the  penalty  of  death,  mobs  will  follow  the  ex- 
ample. If  the  State  does  not  consider  life  sacred,  the  mob.  with 
ready  rope,  will  strangle  the  suspected.  The  mob  will  say : 
"The  only  diflference  is  the  trial ;  we  know  he  is  guilty.  Why 
should  time  be  wasted  in  techincalities?" 

In  other  words,  why  may  not  the  mob  do  quickly  what  the 
law  does  slowly? 

PARDONING  LIFE  PRISONERS. 

Some  members  of  the  Legislature  have  said  they  would  be 

for'the  bill  if  the  Governor  did  not  have  the  pardoning  power. 

.The  records  show  that  89  ^r  cent  of  thqsj  given  a  life  sen- 

^7     tence  die  in  the  penitentiary;  that  only  5  3-10  per  cent  are  par- 

]      doned,  and  5  7-10  are  commuted,  and  not  a  single  life  prisoner 

has  ever  escaped  from  said  prison.     We  know  that  a  large  per 

cent  of  the  few  who  were  pardoned  were  pardoned  so  they  could 

die  out  of  the  prison  walls,  as  was  Lee  Holder.     Besides,  when 

you  assume  they  will  be  pardoned  wrongfully,  you  assume  you 

will  elect  corrupt  Governors,  which  is  not  likely  to  occur. 

Out  of  150  life  prisoners  received  at  the  State  prison  within 
the  last  ten  years,  only  seven  have  been  pardoned,  some  to  die 
outside  the  walls,  and  one  because  it  developed  that  he  was  inno- 
cent. 

CONCLUSION. 
I  want  to  say  that  it  is  no  "maudlin  sentiment,"  nor  misplaced 
sympathy,  that  moved  the  parties  whom  I  represent  to  work 
for  the  passage  of  this  measure.  We  have  no  interest  except 
the  best  interest  of  the  old  "\^olunteer  State"  and  her  hospitable 
citizenship. 

For  the  foregoing  reasons,  we  respectfully  but  earnestly  re- 
quest you.  and  each  of  you.  to  use  your  vote  and  influence  for  the 
passage  of  this  bill. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

R.  L,  SuDDATH,  Attorney, 
On  Behalf  of  Himself,  Duke  C.  Boivers,  Et  Ah. 

—  19  — 


OPINIONS  OF  OTHERS. 

The  following  opinions  are  taken  from  diflferent  periods 
of  thought  relative  to  this  subject: 

Andrew  J.  Palm:  '"It  needs  no  extraordinary  judgment  to 
comprehend  the  truth  that  if  government  wishes  to  teach  that 
life  is  sacred  it  must  not  set  the  example  of  deliberately  destroy- 
ing it.  As  well  might  it  steal  from  the  thief  or  burn  the  house  of 
the  incendiary  as  to  snufif  out  a  human  life  to  teach  that  human 
life  is  sacred  and  should  be  held  inviolable.  The  evil  force  of  bad 
example  is  the  strongest  argument  that  can  be  made  against  the 
death  penalty,  and  in  itself  should  be  sufficient  to  the  law  of  life 
for  life  in  every  civilized  country.  ..  .  .  The  man  who  has 
a  high  regard  for  life  needs  no  law  to  restrain  his  hand  from 
murder." 

Mr.  B.  Paul  Neuman  says:  "Lord  EUenborough  predicted 
chaos  if  men  were  not  to  be  hanged  for  petit  larceny,  and  Lord 
Eldon  heartily  agreed." 

G.  Raleigh  Vicars :  "The  obstacles  in  the  way  of  determining 
the  mental  condition  of  a  man  makes  hanging  a  dangerous  and 
unjust  method  of  punishment,  and  is  a  major  objection  to  the 
same." 

Lafayette :  "I  shall  insist  on  having  the  death  penalty  abol- 
ished until  I  have  the  infallibility  of  human  judgment  demon- 
strated to  me." 

Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton:  "You  ask  me  if  I  believe  in  capital 
punishment.  Indeed,  I  do  not.  When  men  are  dangerous  to  the 
public  they  should  be  imprisoned ;  that  done,  the  remaining  con- 
sideration is  the  highest  good  of  the  prisoner.  Crime  is  a  dis- 
ease; hence  our  prisons  should  be  moral  seminaries,  where  all 
that  is  true  and  noble  in  man  should  be  nurtured  into  life.  Our 
jails,  our  prisons,  our  whole  idea  of  punishment  is  wrong,  and 
will  be  until  the  mother  soul  is  represented  in  our  criminal  legis- 
lation. It  makes  me  shudder  to  think  of  the  cruelties  that  are 
inflicted  on  criminals  in  the  name  of  justice,  and  of  the  awful 

—  20  — 


waste  of  life  and  force — of  the  crushing  out  of  hundreds  and 
thousands  of  noble  men  and  promising  boys  in  these  abominable 
bastiles  of  the  present  country.  "As  to  the  gallows,  it  is  the  tor- 
ture of  my  life.  Every  sentence  and  every  execution  I  hear  of 
if-  a  break  in  the  current  of  my  life  and  thought  today.  I  make 
my  son  the  victim.  I  am  with  him  in  the  solitude  of  that  last 
awful  night,  broken  only  by  the  sound  of  the  hammer  and  the 
coarse  jeers  of  men,  in  preparation  of  the  dismal  pageant  of  the 
coming  day.  I  see  the  cold  sweat  of  death  upon  his  brow,  and 
weigh  the  mountains  of  sorrows  that  rest  upon  his  soul,  with 
its  sad  memories  of  the  past,  and  fearful  fore-bodings  of  the 
world  to  come.  I  imagine  the  mortal  agony,  the  death  struggle. 
and  I  know  ten  thousand  mothers  all  over  the  land  weep  and 
pray  and  groan  with  me  over  every  soul  that  is  lost.  Woman 
knows  the  cost  of  life  better  than  man  does. 

"There  will  be  no  gallows,  no  dungeon,  no  heedless  cruelty  in 
soiitiude  when  mothers  make  the  laws." 

William  Cullen  Bryant:  "I  am  heartily  with  you.  as  you 
know,  in  your  warfare  against  the  barbarous  practice  of  punish- 
ment by  death,  and  my  prayer  is  that  your  labor  may  be  crowned 
with  perfect  success.  Sooner  or  later  T  am  confident  that  the 
infliction  of  the  punishment  of  death  by  the  law  will  become  as 
obsolete  to  the  civilized  world  as  torture  by  the  rack." 

John  r..  Whittier:  "I  have  given  the  subject  of  capital  pun- 
ishment much  consideration,  and  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  I  do  not  regard  the  death  penalty  essential  to  the  security 
and  well-being  of  society ;  on  the  contrary.  I  believe  that  its  total 
abolition,  and  the  greater  certainty  of  conviction  which  would 
follow,  would  tend  to  diminish  rather  than  increase  the  crimes  it 
is  intended  to  prevent." 

Alice  Carey :  "I  cannot,  probably,  add  anything  to  the  force 
of  what  must  have  been  already  said  by  your  contributors  against 
the  crime  of  crimes — capital  punishment.  As  I  regard  it.  the  sec- 
ond murder  is  worse  than  the  first;  for  the  first  may  have  been 
attended  with  extenuating  circumstances — not  so  the  second." 

Henry  \\\  Longfellow :  "I  am,  and  have  been  for  many 
years,  an  opponent  of  capital  punishment.     It  would  be  useless  to 

—  21  — 


state  my  reasons.     They  are,  in  the  main,  the  same,  doubtless,  as 
those  w  hich  influence  the  other  opponents  to  the  death  penalty." 

Horatio  Seymour:  "I  do  not  know  exactly  how  far  we  shall 
agree  with  regard  to  capital  punishment.  1  am  decidedly  in  favor 
of  softening  our  criminal  code  for  many  reasons.  By  so  doing 
we  shall  secure  greater  certainty  of  conviction  in  cases  of  guilt. 
I  am  a  strong  believer  in  the  influence  of  hope,  rather  than  fear. 
The  longer  I  live  and  the  more  I  see  and  learn  of  men,  the  more 
I  am  disposed  to  think  well  of  their  hearts  and  poorly  of  their 
heads." 

Dr.  Benjamin  Rush:  "The  power  over  human  life  is  the 
sole  prerogative  of  him  who  gave  it.  Human  laws,  therefore,  are 
in  rebellion  against  this  prerogative  when  they  transmit  it  to 
human  hands.  I  have  said  nothing  of  the  punishment  of  death 
for  murder,  because  I  consider  it  an  improper  punishment  for 
any  offense." 

Father  Matthew :  "I  have  been  about  thirty  years  in  the  min- 
istry and  T  have  never  yet  discovered  that  the  founder  of  Chris- 
tianity has  delegated  to  man  any  right  to  take  away  the  life  of  his 
fellowman." 

Henry  Ward  Beccher:  "In  our  age,  and  with  the  resources 
which  Christian  civilization  has  placed  within  reach  of  civil  gov- 
ernments, there  is  no  need  of  the  death  penalty,  and  every  con- 
sideration of  reason  and  humanity  pleads  for  its  abolition.  It 
does  not  answer  well  the  ends  of  justice,  and  often  defeats  them. 
.\s  an  example,  it  tends  rather  to  brutify  than  to  quicken  the 
moral  sense  of  .spectators,  and  yet,  while  the  fear  of  hanging  does 
not  deter  men  from  crime,  the  fear  of  inflicting  death  deters  many 
a  jury  from  finding  a  just  verdict  and  favors  the  escape  of  crim- 
inals. It  is  the  rude  justice  of  a  barbarous  age.  We  ought,  long 
ago.  to  have  done  with  it." 

Wendell  Phillips :  "The  gallows  should  be  abolished  alto- 
gether. It  never  could  have  been  defended,  except  on  the  ground 
of  absolute  necessity,  in  order  to  protect  society.  It  would  be 
absurd  to  make  any  such  plea  for  it  now,  since  we  all  know  that, 
within  the  resources  of  modern  times,  we  can  keep  a  man  within 
four  walls  as  long  as  we  see  fit.  That  guards  the  community,  and 
we  have  no  right  to  punish  him  in  order  to  deter  others  from  fol- 

—  22  — 


lowing  in  his  footsteps.  The  moment  a  man  violates  law  he  for- 
feits his  civil  right.  This  gives  society  the  right,  and  it  imposes  on 
it  the  duty,  of  subjecting  hm  to  the  best  moral  nfluences  it  can 
command,  as  long  as  it  needs  to  make  him  a  good  citizen.  That 
is  all  the  right  society  acquires  over  him,  and  this  does  not  justify 
the  gallows." 

'-.y  Victor  Hugo  :  "The  law  that  dips  its  finger  in  human  blood  to 
write  the  commandment,  'Thou  shalt  not  murder,'  is  naught  but 
an  example  of  legal  transgression  against  the  precept  itself." 

Robert  Burns :  "Man's  inhumanity  to  man  makes  countless 
thousands  mourn." 

William  Shakespeare : 

"The  jury,  passing  on  the  prisoner's  life, 
May,  in  the  sworn  twelve,  have  a  thief  or  two 
Guiltier  than  him  they  try." 

Cicero :  "Away  with  the  executioner  and  the  execution,  and 
the  very  name  of  its  engine.  Even  the  mere  mention  of  them  is 
unworthy  of  a  Roman  citizen  and  a  freeamn." 

Francis  Bacon :  "There  is  no  passion  in  the  mind  of  man  so 
weak  that  it  mates  and  masters  the  fear  of  death.  Revenge 
triumphs  over  death,  love  slights  it.  honor  aspireth  to  it.  and  grief 
fleeth  to  it." 

Arthur  C.  Mellette,  a  former  Governor  of  South  Dakota,  has 
this  to  say  of  capital  punishment:  "T  have  long  been  of  the  opin- 
ion that  capital  punishment  fosters  crime  and  murder,  and  that 
imprisonment  for  life,  without  power  of  pardon,  would  better 
subserve  the  interest  of  society." 

Former  Justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  Samuel  F. 
Miller,  on  the  day  before  his  death,  wrote  as  follows :  "I  have 
only  to  say  that  I  am  now,  and  have  been  for  many  years,  a 
disbeliever  in  ihe  merits  of  capital  punishment  as  a  means  of  pre- 
venting crime.  A  long  judicial  experience  has  impressed  me  more 
and  more  with  the  force  of  the  argument  against  the  policy  of 
such  punishment,  but  I  have  not  abandoned  my  original  belief 
against  the  moral  right  of  taking  life  as  a  judicial  proceeding. 

"You  would,  perhaps,  be  interested  to  know  that  the  following 

—  23  — 


sentence  is  a  part  of  a  judgment  delivered  by  me  in  the  Circuit 
Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  District  of  Iowa,  1867.  and  is 
to  be  found  in  the  case  of  United  States  vs.  Gleason,  Woolworth 
Reports,  140: 

"  'The  penahy  which  the  law  attaches  to  your  offense  is  one 
which  my  private  judgment  does  not  approve,  for  I  do  not  believe 
that  capital  punishment  is  the  best  means  to  enforce  the  observ- 
ance of  the  laws,  or  that,  in  the  present  state  of  society,  it  is 
necessary  for  its  protection,  but  T  have  no  more  right,  for  that 
reason,  to  refuse  to  obey  the  law  than  you  have  to  resist  it. '" 

CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 
By  W.  T.  Rolling,  D.D. 

Has  man  any  moral  right  to  take  the  life  of  his  fellow-man, 
under  any  circumstances,  except  to  save  his  own  life?  I  think 
not,  because  the  divine  law  says :  "Thou  shalt  not  kill,  and  when 
God  says  this  He  either  means  it,  or  indulges  in  grim  humor, 
which  would  destroy  the  confidence  of  man  in  the  sincerity  of  the 
Great  Lawmaker,  and  practically  would  destroy  the  entire  deca- 
logue as  of  binding  force,  and  excuse  all  crime.  ' 

If  God  made  jjrovision  to  depart  from  this  commandment, 
He  provided  for  the  abrogation  of  every  commandment  under 
certain  conditions.  "Thou  shalt  not  steal"  would  mean  that  thou 
shalt  not  illegally  steal,  but  may  steal  when  the  human  law  pro- 
vides for  it.  So  might  we  deal  wnth  every  commandment  and 
nullify  all  of  thenL  I  take  it  for- granted  that  God  meant  what 
He  said  when  He  gave  the  moral  code  to  Moses  at  Sinai,  and  if 
so,'man  has  no  right  to  amend  the  divinely  made  and  given  law, 
and  therefore  has  no  right  to  take  the  life  of  his  fellow-man. 
under  any  cc^ndition,  unless  it  be  to  preserve  his  own  life,  and 
prevent  its  being  taken  by  another. 

Xo  man  or  body  of  men  caul  justly  claim  the  right  to  take 
what  he  or  they  cannot  restore,  and  because  human-made  law 
provides  for  conditions  under  which  man  may  take  the  life  of 
man,  in  no  wise  alters  the  moral  crime  involved  in  doing  so. 

—  24  — 


It  is  urj^ed  tliat  capital  punishment  is  necessary  in  order  to 
maintain  government,  but  this  is  a  mere  assumption  without 
proof,  for  g-overnment  in  States  and  counties  which  have  aban- 
doned capital  inmishment  is  as  good,  if  not  better,  than  in  those 
States  which  still  use  this  mode  of  punishment.  To  take  a  man's 
life  is  no  punishment,  so  far  as  this  life  is  concerned,  and  man 
has  no  power  to  punish  in  the  world  to  come.  Really  punishment 
is  only  in  relation  to  this  life  so  far  as  man  can  inflict  or  suffer 
it,  and  to  claim  that  the  State  takes  the  life  of  a  man  to  punish 
him  is  sheer  folly.  Life  imprisonment  would  be  real  punishment, 
and  with  man  living  and  yet  alone  in  self-communion,  and  in  the 
presence  of  his  crime  and  folly,  would  far  surpass  death  as  a 
punishment  fr)r  the  taking  oi  the  life  of  his  fellow-man. 

Many  a  man.  under  the  burden  of  his  sin  and  shame,  has 
taken  his  own  life,  because  death  is  far  preferable  to  being  com- 
pelled to  live  in  presence  of  conscious  crime  and  remorse  for 
having  committed  it.  True,  many  a  man  has  petitioned  for  the 
commuting  of  the  death  sentence  to  life  imprisonment,  but  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  done  under  the  hope  of  pardon :  and 
take  away  this  hope,  and  the  same  men  would  prefer  death  to 
life  imprisonment,  for  then  death  would  be  the  least  of  the  two 
punishments. 

The  taking  of  criminal  life  is  but  a  relic  of  heathenism,  and 
utterly  antagonistic  to  the  law  of  God  and  Christian  civilization. 
It  does  not  bring  back  the  dead ;  and,  in  humanity,  satisfies  only 
the  low  spirit  of  revenge  in  the  living — a  spirit  murderously  crimi- 
nal within  itself,  and  severely  rebuked  by  the  Christ  himself.  "'Ye 
have  heard  it  said,  in  olden  times,  an  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth,  but  I  say  unto  you,  love  your  enemies,  and  pray 
for  them  that  dispitefully  use  you."  and  the  taking  of  human  life 
is  out  of  harmony  with  this  teaching. 

lmj)risonment  for  life  gives  the  criminal  some  opportunity  for 
reformation,  and  at  the  same  time  puts  the  seal  of  contamination 
upon  his  crime  beyond  any  that  can  be  put  by  depriving  him  of 
life.  Add  to  this  the  withdrawal  of  the  power  of  pardon  from 
the  Governor,  making  a  life  sentence  be  for  life,  unless  it  can 
be  shown  that  an  innocent  man  has  been  wrongfully  condemned, 
and  this  through  a  board  of  pardons,  and  then  we  would  have 
punishment  for  the  guilty  and  vindication  for  the  innocent,  meet- 
ing the  design  of  all  just  law,  which  is  not  for  taking  revenge 

—  25  — 


upon  the  i^uilty.  hut  to  punish  the  guilty  in  order  to  protect 
society  and  to  vindicate  the  innocent.  Since  the  individual  nor 
the  State  cannot  give  life,  neither  has  any  right  to  take  it,  as  that 
right  is  alone  lodged  in  the  Great  Giver  of  all  Life,  and  the 
province  of  the  State  is  to  deal  with  the  living  along  the  lines 
of  life,  punishing  for  the  present  only,  with  no  power  to  deal  with 

the  things  and  conditions  of  the  future  life.  What  adequate  sat- 
isfaction to  the  individual  or  the  State  can  there  be  in  the  taking 
of  a  human  life,  unless  it  be  to  satisfy  a  spirit  of  revenge,  which 
has  no  place  in  the  divine  law,  and  should  have  none  in  human 
law.  To  imprison  for  life,  depriving  man  of  his  liberty  and  all 
citizen  privileges,  while  at  the  same  time  protecting  society,  is 
reasonable,  just  and  even  humane,  and  beyond  this  is  but  a 
usurpation  of  power  upon  the  part  of  the  State  in  the  exercise 
of  the  power  of  life  or  death,  which  alone  belongs  to  God. 

If  we  are  to  judge  by  the  past,  the  taking  of  human  life  by 
the  State  is  no  remedy  for  crime,  for  in  the  face  of  possible 
death  murder  is  alarmingly  on  the  increase,  and  human  life  was 
never  so  cheap  as  it  is  at  present,  and  certainly  there  is  a  demand 
for  .some  other  deterring  preventive  of  crime,  for  capital  punish- 
ment is  a  failure.  With  capital  punishment  the  penalty  for 
crime,  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  jury  to  convict,  because  the  taking 
of  human  life  is  repugnant  to  even  the  coarsest  type  of  mankind, 
and  utterly  out  of  all  harmony  with  refined  nature,  so  that  even 
unconsciously  men  recoil  from  the  idea  of  taking  human  life — 
men  who  would  readily  give  a  verdict  for  life  imprisonment  com- 
l^romise  on  acquittal. 

iJi  course,  I  am  aware  that  many  will  disagree  with  me,  for 
I  have  never  been  able  to  get  everybody  to  see  my  way  and  be 
right  in  their  view,  but  I  am  sure  that,  as  men  grow  more  civil- 
ized, capital  punishment  grows  less  poi^ular  and  wholesale  mur- 
der, in  the  shape  of  war,  is  regarded  as  the  last  resort  by  the 
civilized  nations  of  earth,  and  the  time  will  come  when  human 
life  will  be  rightly  valued  and  war  shall  be  no  more. 

If  this  is  not  to  be  the  case  Christianity  will  have  proved  a 
failure,  to  become  an  efifete  religion,  cast  by  intelligent  humanity 
upon  the  religious  scrap-pile  of  the  ages. 

Is  it  not  time  to  put  aside  the  unwarranted  penalty  of  capital 
punishment  and  adopt  the  more  humane  and  effective  punishment 

—  26  — 


by  life  imprisonment,  put  beyond  the  reach  of  one-man  pardon? 
The  capital  punishment  experiment  has  proved  a  faihire,  so 
far  as  it  bein,^  a  remedy  for  crime  is  concerned,  and  we  cer- 
tainly should  cease  to  officially  commit  the  crime  for  which  we 
han.e^  the  other  fellow. — Mfiiipliis  Commercial  Appeal,  January 
26,  1913. 


DETECTIVE  AGAINST  IT. 

Stout  Says  Capital  Punishment  Should  Re  Abolished. 
"Capital  punishment  does  not  act  as  any  benefit  in  deterring 
crime,"  said  J.  T.  Stout.  Chief  of  the  Stout  Detective  Agency, 
talking  with  a  reporter  for  The  Democrat  yesterday. 

"I  think  that  the  principle  of  taking  a  life  for  a  life  is  entirely 
wrong,  and  should  be  abolished.  My  long  experience  as  a  de- 
tective has  shown  me  that  it  does  not  carry  out  the  fullest  aims 
of  justice. 

"We  have  capital  punishment  in  this  State  today  and  yet 
crime  still  continues,  especially  murder.  I  believe  in  giving  every 
man  a  chance  if  possible,  and  I  think  that  imprisonment  for  life 
would  at  least  give  a  man  a  chance  to  lead  a  decent  life  in  prison, 
where  otherwise  he  would  be  dead.  Then  if  in  prison  he  is  of 
that  much  value  to  the  State  as  a  laborer,  whereas  dead  men 
can't  work." — Nasln^iUe  Democrat. 


By  H.  W.  Lewis. 

There  are  many  persons  who  do  not  want  to  investigate  pro- 
gressive ideas  in  the  treatment  of  crime  and  criminals,  those 
who  believe  in  blood  for  blood,  and  who  do  not  want  to  believe 
anything  else  can  find  the  sum  total  of  the  argument  in  its  favor 
in  the  Pentateuch. 

An  ignorant  conscience  is  an  uncertain  guide.  Slavery  was 
an  institution  of  so  long  standing  that  it  was  assented  to  as  right 
and  proper  without  investigation  on  the  part  of  the  great  major- 
itv.  Arguments  in  favor  of  slavery  were  drawn  from  the  Scrip- 
tures, and  it  was  defended  from  the  pulpit  as  a  divine  institution 
because  Moses  held  it  to  be  such.  Many  persons  are  displeased 
with  the  idea  of  doin  gaway  with  the  death  penalty,  and  charge 

—  27  — 


the  origin  of  such  ideas  as  a  disbeHef  in  the  Sacred  Word. 
These  people  have  a  strong  sentiment  for  the  Bible,  but  it  is 
mostly  a  mere  sentiment.  The  two  verses,  "Whoso  sheddeth 
man's  blood  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,"  and  the  one  like 
•imto  it,  "Pie  that  spareih  the  rod  hateth  his  son,"  constitute  the 
sum  total  of  their  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament,  while  their 
respect  for  the  new  is  based  largely  on  Paul's  advice  to  Timothy, 
to  take  a  little  wine  for  his  stomach's  sake.  They  are  just  as 
firm  in  the  faith  of  hanging,  whipping  and  moderate  drinking 
as  if  they  had  much  more  authority  for  their  position.  Many 
persons,  usually  in  the  rear  of  the  van  of  progress,  want  "Thus 
saith  the  Lord"  for  everything  they  undertake,  and  while  waiting 
for  the  '.'still  small  voice"  to  come  with  sufficient  force  to  set 
them  in  action,  others  grasp  the  situation,  go  ahead,  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  Lord  helps  those  that  help  themselves,  set  the 
wheels  of  reform  in  motion,  and  these  obstructionists  come  up 
just  in  time  to  say  "amen"  and  thank  the  Lord  that  the  victory 
was  won  by  faith  and  prayer. 

Tt  will  not  be  denied  that  slavery  was  defended  from  the  pul- 
pit less  than  seventy  years  ago,  North  and  South. 


The  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to  be  conservative 
may  be  accounted  for  on  the  ground  that  they  draw  their  in- 
spiration, and  the  principles  by  which  they  are  governed,  largely 
from  what  has  been  aptly  called  the  "carpenter"  theory  of  crea- 
tion. They  make  no  allowances  for  the  race  to  grow,  but  think 
that  what  was  good  enough  for  Abraham  and  ^Moses  four  or  five 
thousand  years  ago  is  good  enough  for  I'ennesseans  in  this,  the 
twentieth  century. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  ministers,  as  a  body,  are 
ardent  advocates  of  the  law  that  demands  blood  for  blood,  and 
they  can  justly  claim  the  credit,  whatever  it  may  be,  for  having 
kept  the  old  law  so  long  in  force.  Some  of  their  ablest  men. 
however,  who,  by  the  way,  are  usually  the  most  liberal,  are  op- 
posed to  overcoming  evil  with  evil,  and  have  had  the  courage  so 
to  express  themselves. 

\\'hen  ministers  become  convinced  that  it  is  their  duty  to  fight 
a  custom  they  go  into  the  contest  in  earnest.  As  soon  as  the 
preachers  were  satisfied  that  slaverv  in  Tudea  did  not  make 
slavery  right  in  Tennessee,  they  went  at  it  "tooth  and  nail,"  and 

—  28  — 


(lid  much  to  create  the  impression  that  banished  slavery  from 
existence.  If  the  time  comes  when  they  outgrow  another  Jewish 
custom,  when  they  believe  what  they  preach — that  the  vilest  sin- 
ner may  return,  that  forgiveness,  mercy,  and  amity  are  better . 
than  vengeance,  retaliation,  and  blood — then  death  as  a  punish- 
ment for  crime  will  be  relegated  to  its  proper  place  among  the 
relics  of  a  lower  degree  of  civilization.  Suppose  we  found  our 
criminal  jurisprudence  on  the  Mosaic  code,  what  crimes  or  of- 
fenses would  be  punishable  with  death?  Here  is  a  list  that  in- 
cludes many  of  them  :  Murder,  kidnaping,  eating  leavened  bread 
during  the  Passover,  allowing  a  cross  ox  to  kill  a  person,  witch- 
craft, bestiality,  idolatry,  oppression  of  widows  and  orphans, 
making  holy  ointment,  violation  of  the  Sabbath,  striking  father 
or  mother,  sodomy,  eating  the  flesh  of  the  peace  offering  with 
uncleanliness,  eating  any  manner  of  blood,  offering  children  to 
Moloch,  screening  an  idolator,  going  after  familiar  spirits,  un- 
chastity  before  marriage,  when  charged  by  the  husband  or  un- 
chastity  of  a  priest's  daughter,  blasphemy,  forbearing  to  keep  the 
Passover,  uncleanliness,  stranger  coming  near  the  tabernacle,  and 
a  number  of  others. 

No  matter  how  great  any  man's  respect  for  the  Old  Te  ta- 
ment  may  be,  the  most  that  he  can  say  for  the  ceremonial  and 
criminal  law  of  the  Hebrews  is  that  it  was  adapted  to  men  in  a 
very  crude  condition,  who  wxre  making  their  first  advances  in 
the  rudiments  of  moral  and  religious  truths  :  that  it  taught  them 
only  as  much  as  they  were  prepared  to  receive,  with  a  promise 
of  something  better  to  come  after.  Ministers  admit  that  the 
ceremonial  law  of  the  Jews  is  no  longer  binding,  and  that  the 
criminal  code  has  no  force  except  in  case. of  numbers.  They  in- 
sist that  God's  covenant  with  Xoah,  in  which  occurs  the  verse. 
"Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed." 
is  binding  for  all  time  and  upon  all  nations.  They  do  not  un- 
derstand that  it  is  repealed,  both  in  the  language  and  the 
spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  li  they  believe  as  firmly  as  they 
pretend  that  killing  the  murderer  is  pleasing  to  God  and  a  duty 
sacredly  enjoined  upon  man.  they  should  act  as  executioners : 
they  certainly  should  not  hesitate  to  pull  the  string  or  cut  the 
rope  that  sends  the  soul  of  a  murderer  to  the  answering  bar  of 
God. 

The  prinicples  of  the  Jewish  law  of  penal  jurisprudence  are  so 
diametrically  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity  that  there  can 

—  29  — 


be  no  compromise  between  them.  Either  Christ's  command  when 
He  says,  "Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  an  eye  for  an 
eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  but  I  say  imto  you,  that  ye  resist  not 
evil,"  must  prevail,  or  the  very  thing  He  forbids  must  be  ac- 
knowledged as  right.  Moses  put  his  enemies  to  death,  Christ 
died  for  them ;  Moses  was  sinful,  Christ  was  sinless ;  Moses  in- 
sisted on  sacrifice,  Christ  required  mercy;  Moses  was  a  law- 
giver and  teacher  for  a  single  nation,  Christ  gave  a  gospel  for  the 
world." 

H  Jesus  had  not  given  His  thought  on  this  law  of  Moses, 
as  found  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  if  he  had  not  set  up  a 
standard  immeasurably  higher,  then  we  might  pretend  that  this 
law  of  Moses  for  the  punishment  of  murder  was  a  statement  for 
all  generations  and  all  forms  of  civilization.  But  His  teaching 
is  actually  as  much  or  more  in  advance  of  Moses'  law  as  that 
was  in  advance  of  the  ideas  and  practices  of  men  when  it  was 
given.  But  this  law  of  Moses  is  all  there  is  in  the  Bible  which 
can  be  pleaded  as  an  exception  to  the  commandment,  "Thou 
shalt  not  kill."  Jesus  did  enforce  this  law  against  killing,  but 
He  did  not,  directly  or  indirectly,  recognize  any  exception  to  it. 
"Thou  shalt  not  kill"  is  more  a  command  than  God's  covenant 
with  Noah.  It  is  binding  on  nations  as  well  as  on  individuals, 
for  there  are  no  exceptions  provided.  What  right  have  we  to 
make  any? — Nashville  Banner. 

THE  FEAR  OF  DEATH. 

Government  statistics  show  an  average  of  i,6oo  homicides 
committed  per  year,  for  the  past  ten  years,  in  the  United  States 
and  5,500  suicides  per  year  during  the  same  time. 

Which  conclusively  proves  that  the  fear  of  death  does  not 
deter  when  desperation  takes  hold  of  a  man. 

Putting  people  to  death  did  not  deter  the  Christian  religion, 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  made  it  the  most  powerful  religion  in 
the  world. 

Christ,  who  was  put  to  death  by  a  howling  mob,  and  who  had 
the  power  to  save  himself,  exemplified  and  proved  the  correct- 
ness of  the  doctrine  which  He  preached.  "Vengeance  is  mine, 
saith  the  Lord."  "Be  not  overcome  with  evil,  but  overcome  evil 
with  good." — Duke  C.  Bozuers. 

—  30  — 


BOVVERS,  OPPOSER  OF  DEATH  PENALTY,  MAKING 
HARD  FIGHT. 

Duke  C.  Bowers,  retired  grocery  merchant  of  Aleniphis, 
has  returned  to  Xashville  to  resume  liis  fight  for  the 
passage  of  a  bill  in  the  Legislature  abolishing  capital  punishment 
in  Tennessee.  Mr.  Bowers  is  entering  into  the  fight  with  great 
enthusiasm,  and  is  making  a  telling  campaign  among  the  legis- 
lators and  with  the  public.  Largely  through  his  eflforts  the  issue 
of  capital  punishment  has  been  brought  before  the  people  of 
Tennessee,  and  will  be  kept  before  them  until  after  the  bill  in 
the  Legislature  is  passed  or  defeated. 

Mr.  Bowers  has  made  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment  his 
study  for  many  years,  and  is  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  sub- 
ject. The  following  interview  was  given  out  by  him  Monday 
night : 

"Capital  punishment  has  been  abolished  in  five  States.  In 
each  of  these  States,  with  one  exception,  homicides  have  been  on 
the  decrease,  while  in  the  neighboring  States,  in  almost  every 
instance,  homicides  are  on  the  increase. 

"The  government  reports  regarding  the  States  on  which  tab 
is  kept  as  to  homicides  and  so  forth  showed  that,  taking  the 
whole  as  an  average,  there  are  almost  two  and  one-half  times  as 
many  homicides  in  those  States  that  have  the  death  penalty  as 
against  those  that  have  done  away  with  it. 

Mob  Law  Argument. 

"Some  argue  that  mob  law  will  increase  if  the  death  penalty 
is  abolished.  Statistics  show  that  from  June  i,  1912,  to  November 
15,  1912,  there  were  eighteen  people  killed  in  the  United  States 
for  rape,  of  which  number  fifteen  were  lynched  and  three  were 
executed,  which  refutes  the  above  argument,  because  fifteen  out 
of  eighteen  are  already  being  lynched. 

"Others  argue  that  so  long  as  the  pardon  power  remains  with 
the  Governor  that  they  are  against  the  abolishing  of  the  death 
penalty.  There  have  been  received  at  the  Nashville  penitentiary 
in  the  past  ten  years  151  life-time  prisoners,  and  during  that  time 

—  31  — 


only  seven  have  been  pardoned.  Some  of  them  having  been  so 
as  to  let  them  die  at  home  with  their  people,  one  of  them  because 
the  jury  and  court  that  tried  the  man  decided  he  was  not  guilty, 
and  anyone  with  a  heart  in  him  would  have  done  what  the  Gov- 
ernors did  in  these  cases. 

"The  old  doctrine  of  'an  eye  for  an  eye'  was  done  away  with 
by  that  Great  Teacher  who  said,  'Be  not  overcome  of  evil,  but 
overcome  evil  with  good.'    'Vengeance  is  mine,  saith  the  T.ord.' 

Fear  of  Death, 

"The  fear  of  death  does  not  deter  homicides.  For  the  past  ten 
years  there  have  been  an  average  of  about  i,6oo  homicides  and 
5,500  suicides  per  year,  showing  that  when  desperation  takes  hold 
of  a  man  the  fear  of  death  does  not  deter  him  from  taking  even 
his  own  life.  The  fear  of  death  did  not  prevent  our  ancestors 
from  joining  the  army  in  defense  of  our  country.  If  the  fear  of 
death  had  prevailed,  then  our  State  would  not  bear  the  name  of 
the  Volunteer  State. 

"The  death  penalty  is  ghastly,  inhuman,  unchristlike,  barbarous 
and  absolutely  inexcusable  from  statistical  standpoints  as  well  as 
from  all  other  standpoints. 

"Part  of  the  taxes  you  pay,  I  pay,  and  all  of  us  pay,  is  being- 
paid  someone  in  this  State  for  the  purpose  of  having  him  take 
some  poor,  weak,  misguided,  unfortunate  human  being  out  and 
hang  him  by  the  neck  until  he  is  dead,  dead,  dead. 

"Who  is  able  to  know  that  we  would  not  have  committed  the 
same  crime  for  which  this  God-given  human  soul  was  put  to 
death,  had  we  have  sprung  from  the  same  ancestry,  been  thrown 
in  the  same  environment  and  have  been  cursed  with  the  same 
devils?  Who  knows  but  what  in  the  sight  of  God  we  commit  as 
great  a  wrong  when  we  take  His  name  in  vain  as  does  the 
vilest  lawbreaker  in  his  misdeeds  ? 

"Help  us  to  be  merciful  unto  others  as  we  would  have  God  be 
merciful  unto  us."— Ka^hvil I c   Tcnncsscan   and  American. 

—  32  — 


DR.    PAYNE   AGAINST  CAPITAL   PUNISHMENT. 

Educator    Dixlakks    Barbarous   Custom    Does    Not    Act   as 
Crimk  Deterrent. 

"All  of  my  feelings  are  against  capital  punishment,  and  always 
have  heen."  said  Dr.  lirnce  R.  I'ayne,  President  of  the  George 
I'eabody  College,  talking  with  a  reporter  for  The  Democrat  last 
night. 

"Even  the  thought  of  capital  punishment  is  cruel,  and  I  think 
that  such  method  of  punishment  is  unnecessary.  It  is  rather  a 
barbarous  custom,  and  theoretically  does  not  reach  its  ends. 

"When  a  State  punishes  a  criminal  and  at  the  same  time  re- 
pairs a  broken  life.  I  think  it  is  far  better  than  snuffing  life  out, 
thereby  neither  helping  in  reformation  nor  deterring  crime." 

When  asked  if  he  thought  the  bill  introduced  yesterday  was 
a  good  one.  and  should  be  passed.  Dr.  Payne  replied: 

"Well.  yes.  it  is  a  good  thing,  and  should  be  passed.  Capital 
punishment  doesn't  seem  to  get  anywhere,  so  to  speak.  If  a 
criminal  is  dangerous  to  society,  then  lock  him  up. 

"Frequently  the  very  lowest  type  of  criminals  represented  in 
the  South  by  the  negroes  considers  it  not  dishonorable,  but  rather 
distinguishing,  for  members  of  his  class  to  die  the  ostentatious 
death  on  the  scaffold. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  example  of  long  years  of  imprison- 
ment, or  enforced  labor  on  pubilc  works  proves  a  much  stronger 
deterring  influence  than  capital  punishment." — The  Democrat. 

DR.  PARRISH  AGAINST  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 

"I  am  totally  against  capital  punishment  in  any  form,"  said 
Dr.  H.  P).  Parrish,  one  of  Nashville's  prominent  physicians,  and 
the  Councilman  from  the  Twentieth  Ward,  talking  with  a  re- 
porter for  The  Democrat.  "And  I  am  willing  to  do  anything 
in  reason  to  do  away  with  it. 

"Capital  punishment  is  barbarous,  and  inhuman,  and  any- 
thing but  the  right  thing.  1  do  not  think  that  it  is  the  correct 
thing  for  a  civilized  community  to  have  such  a  law  on  its  statute 
books. 

—  33  — 


"No  man  has  a  right  to  take  something  which  he  cannot  re- 
store, as  I  see  it,  and  therefore  the  State  has  no  right  to  take  the 
Hfe  of  a  man  which  it  cannot  give  back. 

"1  think  that  the  bill  introduced  by  Charles  C.  Gilbert  and 
others  in  the  Legislature  is  an  excellent  one.  and  I  certainly  hope 
that  it  will  go  through. 

"From  the  standpoint  of  humanity,  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity, we  should  do  away  with  capital  punishment." — The 
Democrat. 

POPUL.AR  PASTOR  AGAINST  LEGAL  KILLING. 

"I  prefer  to  learn  towards  mercy's'  side,''  said  Dr.  Carey  E. 
Morgan,  one  of  the  most  popular  ministers  in  the  city,  and  pastor 
of  the  Vine  Street  Christian  Church,  when  asked  last  night  if 
he    was    for   the   abolishment   of   capital    punishment. 

"My  whole  nature  rebels  against  it,  and,  really,  I'm  with  you 
for  the  abolishment.  It  does  seem  to  me  that,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Christianity,  there  should  be  some  method  of  reformation 
as  well  as  punishment. 

"We  are  not  under  the  ancient  Mosaic  law  of  "an  eye  for  an 
eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth,'  but  under  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God.  We  are  taught  to  'love  om-  enemies  and  do  good  to 
them  that  despitefully  use  us.' 

"It  seem  that  some  method  looking  toward  the  reformation 
rather  than  the  sheer  punishment  would  be  more  Christian,  and. 
perhai)s,  finally  would  serve  as  a  surer  ijrotection  for  society." 
— The  Democrat. 

PROMINENT    RECTOR    OPPOSES    DEATH    PENALTY. 

"I  am  heartily  opposed  to  capital  punishment,"  said  Rev. 
Nicholas  Rightor,  assistant  rector  of  St.  Ann's  Episcopal  Church, 
when  interviewed. 

"I  have  always  i^ecn  against  capital  punishment,  for  I  think 
that  civilization  and  humanity  demands  reformation  rather  than 
punishment  from  a  criminal,  and  when  a  man's  life  is  napped  out 
there  is  no  opportunity  for  reformation,  as  far  as  the  outer  world 
is  concerned. 

"Capital  i)unishment  is  a  barbarous  custom,  for  in  this  day 
and  age  we  are  not  under  the  ancient  law. of  Mosaic  days,  call- 

—  34  — 


ing"   for   an    'eye    for   an   eye,   and   a   tooth    for  a   tooth.' — The 
Democrat. 

"I  have  never  been  in  fav(^r  of  this  method  of  punishing^  a 
criminal  or  makinj^  it  an  example  for  society,  and  I  think  it  would 
be  a  good  thing  to  abolish  it. 

"In  this  christian  dispensation  it  is  not  for  any  man  to  usher 
another  into  tlie  other  life  before  his  time." — 7 he  Democrat. 

CRIME  AND  PUNISHMENT. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Democrat : 

Of  real  crime,  all  crimnologists  affirm :  l^irst,  that  it  is  a 
social  disease  like  insanity,  of  which  it  is  really  a  form;  and, 
second,  that  it  is  the  result  or  effect  of  definite  causes,  and  is  not 
effected  in  the  slightest  degree  by  the  infliction  of  punishment 
upon  the  criminal. 

Government  deals  with  this  matter  in  a  blundering,  unscien- 
tific manner,  the  basis  of  which  is  the  stupid  and  savage  idea  of 
revenge,  the  idea  that  crime  is  to  be  restrained,  if  nnt  prevented, 
by  examples  of  punishment. 

Those  who  have  made  this  problem  a  study  very  generally 
agree  that  punishment  not  only  does  not  prevent  or  lessen  crime, 
but  tends,  rather,  to  propagate  it.  This  is  so  well  understood  ta- 
day  that  the  death  penalty  is  no  longer  made  a  public  exhibition 
because  of  its  demoralizing  effects. 

In  those  districts  where  the  death  penalty  has  been  abolished 
no  one  is  less  safe  than  elsewhere.  Since  crime  is  a  social  dis- 
ease, its  cure  or  prevention  can  only  be  effected  by  the  removal 
of  the  generating  causes.  The  chief  cause  of  crime  is  unnatural 
social  conditions,  such  as  poverty  on  the  one  hand  and  opulence 
on  the  other.  Wealh,  with  its  idleness,  creates  vice,  for  vicious 
living  is  characteristic  of  all  aristocratic  classes  whose  members 
are  not  obliged  to  labor  and  are  compelled  to  find  some  way  to 
amuse  themselves  in  order  to  prevent  ennui.  Poverty,  with  its 
enforced  idleness,  tends  also  to  dissipation  and  vicious  propen- 
sities. 

In  a  social  system  where  neither  of  these  extremes  of  poverty 
and  wealth  exists,  and  in  which  all  are  employed  in  some  form 
of  rational  and  useful  activity,  the  incentive  to  vicious  living 
will  no   longer  exist,   and   vice  and  crime  will   naturally  vanish 

-35- 


tor  want  oi  conditions  to  produce  iheni.  The  establishment  of 
rational  social  conditions  will  thus  in  time  eliminate  all  crime, 
which  is  unnatural  and  would  not  exist  under  perfectly  natural 
conditions. 

Elviko  D.  Lai'ra. 
Xashville.  Februar\-  2. 

Tlll<:  TREND  OF  CAPErAL  riWlSl  EMEXT. 

Editor  I'cnnesscan  and  American  : 

The  taking  of  life  in  punishment  for  offenses  aJ2^ainst  society 
is  as  old  as  the  human  race.  It  is  very  natural  the  idea  of  such 
punisiimont  would  suggest  itself  to  ])rimitive  and  barbarous  peo- 
ple. To  put  the  offender  out  oi  existence  was  the  first  way 
thought  of.  Thus  we  find  in  both  sacred  and  profane  history 
the  death  penalty  inflicted  for  countless  offenses.  In  dark  days 
we  find  it  caused  very  little  disgust  even  to  the  most  sensitive 
natures. 

Early  writers  speak  lightly  of  it.  What  is  ghastly  impression 
is  made  when  we  find  Ovid,  at  a  time  when  the  sexes  were  seated 
together  at  Rome  to  witness  the  executions  of  criminals,  speak- 
ing of  this  as  a  "fit  place  for  a  lover  to  prosecute  his  suit !"  In- 
creased intensity  of  seriousness  may  be  observed  with  the  growth 
of  literature.  Strange  that  Nero,  "the  monster  of  cruelty," 
should  say  during  the  first  few  years  of  his  reign,  when  death 
warrants  were  presented  him  to  sign,  that  he  regretted  he  had 
ever  learned  to  write,  so  averse  was  he  to  shedding  human  blood. 
Later,  when  he  became  brutalized,  he  could  sign  them  without 
pain,  and  put  his  own  mother  to  death  without  remorse.  In  the 
middle  ages  the  church,  the  Christian  church,  put  to  death  thou- 
sands who  refused  to  acept  its  theological  dogmas. 

In  the  reign  of  George  III  of  England,  only  a  century  and  a 
half  ago,  above  300  offenses  were  capital.  Goldsmith  and  his 
disciples  began  to  recast  the  public  conscience.  A  few  years  later 
Sir  Samuel  Romilly,  slavery  and  law  reformer,  fought  vigorously 
for  abolition  of  the  death  penalty.  Himiane  societies  played 
their  part.  One  crime  after  another  has  been  stricken  from  the 
list  till  only  two  are  left — high  treason  and  first  degree  murder. 
In  1864  the  question  of  complete  abolition  was  considered  by  a 
royal  commission.  They  reported  two  years  later  differing  on 
expediency,  and  recommending  that  it  be  confined  to  first  degree 
murder.     English  juries  now  seldom  give  a  first  degree  verdict, 

—  36  — 


and  when  they  do,  the  sentence  is  not  often  carried  out,  for  the 
crown  reserves  the  riij;ht  to  chant^e  sentence,  and  fre(|uen;ly  does. 

In  continental  Europe,  perhaps  Beccaria.  philanthropic  writer 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  foremost  in  diminishing^  capital 
punishment.  Norway.  Roumania.  Portugal.  Holland,  and  fifteen 
of  the  twentv-two  cantons  of  Switzerland,  have  comnle^^elv  abol- 
ished it.  while  the  larg^er  countries  have  reduced  capital  offenses 
to  a  few.  In  France,  when  death  sentence  is  i)ronounced.  mercy 
is  g^reatly  exercised  by  the  president. 

In  our  own  country  four  state*-" — Maine,  Michi.sfan,  Wisconsin 
and  Rhode  Island — no  lon,s^er  inflict  the  death  penalty.  The  capi- 
tal offenses  of  the  states  retaining?  it  vary  from  one  to  four. 
Others  have  considered,  and  are  still  considcrins^.  abolition.  In 
\'ir_s^inia's  last  General  assembly  the  subject  received  no  little  at- 
tention. Recently  in  Orejjon  we  find  Governor  \\'est  urfjin.c^  the 
people  to  abolish  it  by  vote. 

Xext.  the  methods  of  infliction.  Naturally,  when  the  death 
penalty  would  sutjgest  itself  to  the  race  in  its  infancv,  the  most 
cruel  and  torturing-  means  would  be  thought  of.  The  trend  is 
significant — burning,  crucifixion,  impalement,  i)recipitation  from 
rocks,  stoning,  beheading,  poisoning,  hanging,  electric  shock. 
In  early  ages  executions  were  public,  the  community  taking  part. 
Today  only  the  morbidly  curious  or  the  brutally  disposed  would 
care  to  witness  an  execution.  Only  a  few  would  hold  that  a 
puldie  execution  frightens  the  criminally  inclined.  Second  to 
a  free  lynching  in  demoralizing  a  community  is  a  free  execution. 
Hence  UK^st  Christian  countries  debar  the  public.  Hence  secular 
newspapers  that  arc  inclined  to  swell  their  columns  with  grue- 
some details  to  gratify  the  morbidly  curious  are  debarred.  Such 
is  a  very  meagre  account  of  the  subject.  It  is  significant.  Com- 
menting is  in  order. 

Who  do  people  sanction  capital  jiunishment  when  it  is  so  gen- 
erally accepted  as  a  relic  of  barbarism  that  it  has  become  a  tru- 
ism ? 

First,  it  is  an  ingrained  habit.  It  is  a  case,  of  persistent  racial 
habit  developing  almost  into  an  instinct. 

Secondly,  lawmakers  (\o  not  err.  A  good  citizen  will  honor 
and   res];eet   the  sacred  charge  of  a  legislative  body.     A   citizen 

—  37  — 


is  not  necessarily  bad  if  he  does  not  agree  with  every  expression. 
Thev  sometimes  hold  that  the  licensed  saloon  is  for  the  best  in- 
terest of  the  State.     Many  are  not  persuaded. 

Thirdly,  some  accept  every  expression  as  they  do  Chicago 
canned  labeled  goods.    They  swallow  and  think  no  more. 

Fourthly,  the  brutality  of  crime  justifies  it.  Yes,  some  crimes 
are  brutal — brutal  beyond  conception  of  the  ordinary  mind.  But 
to  balance  brutality  and  play  the  part  of  a  savage  is  unworthy  of 
a  great  and  humane  people. 

Fifthly,  it  is  a  great  deterrent  of  crime.  If  so,  records  of  the 
foreign  countries,  the  States  in  our  own  country  that  have  abol- 
lished  it  .and  the  personal  testimony  of  Governors  and  officials 
are  meaningless.  Some  States  and  nations  have  abolished  and 
restored.  It  is  noteworthy  that  in  the  majority  of  such  instances 
no  difference  in  rate  of  crime  could  be  observed. 

Sixthly,  Scri])ture  justifies  it.  With  all  reverence,  passages 
can  be  transposed  literally  to  fit  either  side,  strained  and  distorted 
to  carry  points.  Most  of  the  passages  justifying  it  are  found  in 
the  shady  portions  of  the  history  of  the  race.  We  do  not  expect 
for  men  to  see  as  well  at  mi  f night  as  at  noonday.  I  cannot  har- 
monize the  taking  of  human  life  for  ofifenses  with  the  heart  of 
Christ. 

Seventhly,  the  law  gives  ample  time  for  a  condemned  person 
to  prepare  for  eternity.  If  there  is  a  future  existence  of  the  soul, 
what  person  can  say,  what  person  would  dare  say,  when  a  soul 
is  ready  to  meet  its  God?  We  do  not  live  by  the  click  of  a  clock. 
Preparation  for  eternity  is  not  a  rnechanical  process  having  a 
common  measure.  A  pliant  heart  may  prepare  in  a  brief  period. 
-An  obdurate  heart  may  require  years.  Surely  the  person  who 
commits  a  capital  ofifense  is  most  likely  to  be  the  latter.  Hence 
the  power  to  settle  a  person's  fate  irrevocably  can  be  exercised 
ju.stly  only  l)y  the  Omniscient. 

Personally.  w<ire  I  to  take  the  life  of  the  vilest  human  being 
conceivable.  I  should  be  guilty  of  his  blood.  And  according  to 
Christ's  teachings  to  sanction  the  same  by  others  T  must  be 
equally  as  guilty.  Pardon  the  sentiment,  but  if  my  life  were 
taken  by  another,  I  should  only  want  my  avengers  to  confine  my 
slayer  in  some  place  where  the  light  from  heaven  could  serve  to 

—  38  — 


transform  him  more  into  the  likeness  of  his  Maker. 

Above  is  the  trend ;  following,  the  comment.  I  believe,  with 
many  others,  I  can  repeat,  feeling  innocent  of  maudlin  sentiment, 
or  of  being  an  enemy  of  the  common  weal,  the  closing  lines  of 
Myra  Townsend's  poem  on  the  subject : 

"Cease  not  from  striving,  till  our  law 

Is  clear  from  bloody  stain. 
And  reformation — not  revenge — 
Tn  principle  sustain." 

L.  W.  Hexdrickson. 
Nashville.  Tenn. 

CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT  IS  MURDER! 

The  following  news  item  from  Special  Correspondent  W.  G. 
Shepherd  appeared  in  The  Memphis  Press,  February  17,  1912. 
Read  it: 

Chtcwgo.  February  17. — "How  did  my  boy  die?" 
It  wasn't  a  mother  or  a  father  asking  a  question.     It  was  a 
deputy  sheriff,  who  stood  on  the  gallows  looking  down  at  the 
swinging  form  of  an  18-year-old  boy  about  whose  neck  he  had 
fastened  a  rope  five  minutes  before. 

"Wasn't  his  neck  broken?"  insisted  the  deputy,  talking  to  one 
of  the  dozen  doctors  who  were  examining  the  boy's  body.  When 
the  doctor  answered  in  the  affirmative  the  deputy  stepped  back 
from  the  trap-hole,  satisfied. 

What  you  see  at  a  hanging  is  one  thing:  it  shows  you  what 
society  is  doing  to  criminals.  But  what  you  hear  at  hangings 
shows  you  what  society  is  doing  to  itself  when  it  takes  the  life 
of  a  human  being. 


I'm  going  to  put  down  what  I  heard — the  talk  of  men — at 
the  haneing  of  Ph'llip  Summerling.  34  years:  Thos.  Schultz,  18 
years:  Ewald  Shiblawaski.  24:  Ewald's  brother,  Frank,  21.  and 
Thos.  Jennings,  negro,  35. 

For  two  hours  and  ten  minutes  there  were  gathered  in  the 

—  39  — 


vast,  liigh-ceilinged  room  forty-five  physicians,  thirty-five  guards 
and  twenty  ne\vsi)ai)er  men.  They  were  the  representatives  of 
society,  and  1  want  to  show  by  the  thin^s^s  I  heard  them  say  what 
hanging  does  to  the  men  who  are  not  hanged. 

In  his  office,  before  we  went  into  the  death  chamber.  I  asked 
Deputy  Sherifif  I^eters  how  many  men  he  had  hung. 

"Whv.  young  fellow."  he  said.  "I  hung  men  before  you  were 
born.  Ihu'ng  the  Haymarket  rioters.  And  I've  hung  forty  men.'" 
he  added  proudly. 

■'Have  a  smoke."  some  one  said  to  Peters. 

"Xo.  No  smokes,  eats  or  drinks  until  this  job  is  done.  Then 
I'll  go  out  and  take  a  stifT  drink  of  whisky.  I  always  have  a  re- 
action after  a  hanging.    It  always  makes  me  tired  and  sick." 

"Doctors !     Doctors !"  exclaimed  some  one  in  the  hallway. 

We  looked  out  of  Peter's  office  and  saw  a  double  line  of 
deputy  sheriffs,  leading  from  the  main  door  of  the  jail.  Between 
then  was  passing  a  line  of  forty-two  physicians,  who  wore  being 
admitted  to  the  death  chamber. 

Peters  went  to  the  telephone  and  called  up  the  State's  At- 
torney. 

"There's  a  fellow  who's  trying  a  four-fiush  in  Judge  Landis' 
court  to  make  us  put  ofif  this  hanging.  It's  a  piece  of  hocus- 
pocus..  The  fellow  just  wants  to  get  into  the  limelight.  I  want 
you  to  understand  that  I  am  going  right  along  with  this  busi- 
ness." 

When  he  had  hung  up  the  receiver.  Peters  said  to  the  deputy: 

"Fix  up  the  sawbones!  Get  them  in  their  chairs,  and  then 
we'll  get  busy." 

"Press !  Press !'  'a  deputy  called.  That  meant  that  the  dozen 
newpaper  men  were  to  go  into  the  death  chamber. 

A  doctor  tried  to  sc|ueeze  in  with  us. 

"Xo.  no;  you  can't  go  with  these  fellows.  Sit  down  with 
the  doctors.    You  can  examine  the  corpse  with  them." 

The  doctors  all  sat  in  cliairs,  at  the  foot  of  the  high  scaf- 
fold. 

I  heard  one  doctor  with  whiskers  talking  to  another. 
"Hanging  is  all  damn   fooli.shness,"  he  said.  "Xow  here  are 

—  40  — 


four  good  strong  men.  One  of  them  has  a  penniless  wife  and 
hahy.  Tlie  murdered  man  left  a  penniless  wife  and  bahy.  Why 
don't  they  put  these  four  men  in  jail  somewhere  for  life,  and 
make  them  work  to  support  the  two  penniless  women  and  their 
babies?     .Ain't  it  daiun   foolishness  to  kill  them?" 

"I  heard  the  guard  say: 

"There's  a  fellow  in  Xew  "S'ork  City  who's  the  best  executioner 
in  the  country.  He's  killed  140.  and  he  never  makes  a  miscue. 
Must  have  nerve,  huh  ?" 

"What'll  you  have  to  eat?"  one  reporter  asked  another  when 
they  sat  down  at  a  reporters'  table  that  was  covered  with  a 
white  cloth. 

"Yow !  yow  !  pow  !  pow !"  These  noises  came  from  the  cell. 
Inmates  of  the  jail  were  rattling  their  bars,  yelling  and  ])ounding 
tin  cups.    The  death  march  had  begun. 

■■Tiiey"ll  show  uj)  around  that  corner  in  a  minute."  said  one 
reporter.  "I'm  an  old  hand  in  this  hanging  room.  I've  seen  17 
hangings  here."  There  was  a  huffle  of  feet  on  the  iron  floor  and 
the  procession  walked  onto  the  gallery  from  an  upper  tier.  There 
was  a  priest,  in  white,  officers  in  blue,  and  two  men  roughly 
drssed — the  Shiblawski  brothers. 

All  you  could  hear  was  the  murmur  of  the  i)riest'£  prayer 
and  the  murmur  of  the  men.  who  re])eated  his  words  in  low  tones. 
What  were  they  saying]^  \\'hat  kind  of  a  i)rayer  do  men  make 
on  a  gollows? 

No  one  could  hear  their  words.  The  brothers  kissed  the 
cross  which  the  priest  held-  to  them.  While  this  was  going  on 
their  legs  and  arms  were  being  strapped.  We  tried  to  hear 
what  they  were  saying  as  the  deputies  put  a  white  shroud  about 
their  bodies,  but  we  stopped  trying  when  the  white  cajis  were 
tied  over  their  heads.  Rverybofly  seemed  to  be  working  slowly 
on  the  gollows.  ( )ne  brother  turned  his  muffled  head  toward 
another.     We  heard  the  nuirmur  of  his  voice. 

"Crash!"  that  was  the  next  sound.  Then  came  the  scuffling 
of  the  feet  of  14  doctors,  as  they  walked  to  the  two  bags,  their 
contents  twitching,  which  hung  from  the  swaying  ropes. 

The  reporters  rushed  to  a  back  room,  where  their  telephone 
and  telegraph  wires  had  been  placed.  1  caught  these  bits  of 
news  as  they  talked :  "Just  as  the  writhing  body  of  the  boy  stop- 

—  41  — 


ped  swaying."  "Strangled,  gurgled."  "Twitched  like  cats  in 
a  bag."  "Oh,  is  that  yon  taking  my  stuff.  Bill?  Great  show! 
(jreat  show.    Three  more  to  come." 

"What,   in   Christmas,  was  that  prayer?"  said  one  reporter. 
"I  don't  know.     Tell  your  office  to  look  it  up  in  the  prayer 
hook.     They  can  copy  it  from  that." 

Two  men  were  fixing  up  two  other  ropes.  They  carried  out 
two  bodies  on  a  wheeled  table,  covered  with  a  white  cloth. 

"Both  of  their  necks  were  broken."  said  a  doctor,  coming  to 
the  reporters'  table. 

During  the  lull  I  talked  to  seven  of  the  14  doctors  wIkj  had 
examined.  T  wanted  to  know  whether  they  believed  in  capital 
pimishment.     Not  a  one  of  them  did. 

"Capital  punishment  doesn't  keep  people  from  committing 
murder,  unless  you  hang  men  on  a  high  gallows,  in  a  big  space, 
where  all  the  folks  in  the  city  can  see  it."  said  Dr.  A.  C.  Koethe. 

"This  is  my  first  hanging,  and  my  last."  said  Dr.  I.  E.  Huff- 
man. "After  this  T  don't  believe  in  capital  punishment.  I  can  see 
a  patient  die.  but  to  see  sane  men  kill  a  well  man.  in  cold  blood — 
excuse  me." 

All  of  this  talk  was  sort  of  "between  the  acts." 
"Hats  off!  No  smoking,"  called  a  man  in  overalls,  from  the 
gallows. 

The  next  sound  was  that  of  the  prison  inmates,  who  w^ere 
watching  the  death  watch.  Then  we  heard  the  shuffle  of  feet, 
and  again  the  priest  and  the  deputies  in  bhie  brought  two  poorly 
dressed  men  onto  the  scaffold. 

"Well,  the  other  two  got  across  in  time  for  lunch,  said  one 
deputy  in  a  seat  near  me.  looking  at  his  watch. 

"These  fellows'll  eat  with  them."  answered  another  guard. 
"But  I  guess  they'll  all  get  there  too  soon  to  please  them." 

The  two  men  in  poor  clothes  stood  on  the  trap  where  the 
denuties  placed  them.  One  of  them  wasn't  a  man.  but  a  boy. 
John  Schultz,  18  years  old,  son  of  immigrants,  who.  as  one  re- 
ported said,  "hadn't  done  anything  but  get  into  bad  company." 
And  now  we  know  what  the  nrayer  was.  for  John  raised  his  head 
and  Iroked  up.  he  fixed  his  blue  eyes  on  the  high  ceiling,  he  re- 
peated the  words  which  the  priest  murmured. 

-—42  — 


"Oh,  Christ:  have  mercy  on  my  soul!"  His  words  rang  out, 
clear  and  distinct  as  a  bell.  "Holy  Mary,  intercede  for  me ! 
Pray  for  me !  Brings  me  to  everlasting  life." 

The  deputies  were  tying  the  straps  about  his  arms  and  legs. 

Another  of  them  tied  the  white  shroud  about  the  boy's  neck. 

"Savior,  save  me.     Forgive  me  niy  sins!" 

"Listen  to  that  young  fellow  pray."  said  a  reporter. 

"Christ.  T  love  Thee!"  said  the  boy.  Tn  the  white  covering 
he  looked  like  a  choir  boy. 

"Grant  me  to  live  wtih  Thee.     Forgive  me  my  sins." 

While  he  said  these  words,  still  looking  upward,  William 
Davies.  the  jailer,  put  the  noose  over  his  head  and  tightened 
the  knot  under  the  boy's  ear. 

Another  deputy  was  doing  the  same  thing  to  Summerling. 

"Forgive  me  my  sins!  Forgive  me  my  sins!"  rang  out  the 
voice  of  the  boy.  His  voice  was  growing  louder :  there  was  a 
tone  of  wildness  in  it. 

"Holy  ]\Iary !" — "Crash!"  Tt  was  an  awful  thing  to  hear  in 
the  same  moment  those  words  from  the  mouth  of  that  boy,  and 
that  sound.  But  they  came  together.  Again  the  feet  of  fourteen 
doctors  scuffled  over  the  cement  floor  to  the  white,  swaying, 
twitching  bags. 

There  was  another  intermission. 

"Xow.  if  this  nigger'll  only  confess  before  he's  hung,  you 
fellow'll  get  a  fine  top-off  for  your  day's  story."  said  a  deputy 
sheriff  to  the  reporters. 

"We've  got  a  good  early  start  in  the  dav's  work."  said  a  re- 
porter. "Are  you  going  out  for  lunch  ?  Whv  don't  you  sheriffs 
go  out  now  and  then  coiiie  back  for  the  afternoon's  work?  You 
can  fini.sh  a  lot  of  men  at  this  raet." 

"Ciee,"  said  a  young  doctor,  coming  up  to  Jailer  Davies.  "I 
thought  you'd  left  your  handcuffs  on  that  young  fellow.  I  lifted 
up  his  hand,  and  I  didn't  see  that  another  doctor  was  holding 
it  by  the  elbow.  I  thought  his  hands  were  locked  together,  be- 
cause I  couldn't  move  his  arms." 

"They  don't  suffer,"  another  doctor  was  telling  the  reporters. 
"But  isn't  there  some  easier  way  to  kill  a  man?"  asked  a  re- 
porter. 

—  43  — 


"I  sboukl  sav  so,"  said  the  dnctor.  "They  could  put  a  tiny 
drop  of  hydrocyanic  acid  in  his  soup  some  day,  and  in  an  instant 
he  would  he  stone  dead,  without  a  twitch  or  a  pain.  Or  they 
could  kill  a  man  with  morphine,  and  he  would  die  pleasantly,  in 
leautiful  dreams.  But  this  hanging!  It's  the  crudest  thing  in 
civilization !" 

"I  saw  a  voung  doctor  put  young  Schultz's  neck  back  into 
place  in  fine  shape."  said  a  deputy — "iust  grabbed  his  head,  gave 
it  a  twist  and  it  snapped  right  back  where  it  belonged." 

I  saw  plenty  of  smiles  during  the  two  hours  and  ten  minutes. 
1  heard  plenty  of  attempted  jokes  and  commonplaces,  among  the 
42  doctors  and  the  reporters  and  deputies.  Why  did  we  smile  and 
try  to  talk  of  everyday  things? 

Because  hanging  is  so  awful  that  a  man  who  witnesses  it 
dare  not  admit  to  himself  how  awful  it  is.  He  knows  in  his  heart 
of  hearts,  that  the  cold,  deliberate  killing  of  a  man  by  his  fellow'- 
man  brutalizes  the  killers — and  that  is  all  society — just  as  much 
as  it  ends  human  life.  Perhaps  the  killers  suffer  more  harm  than 
the  killed. — The  Memphis  Press. 

MOORE  IS  .\GATXST  C.\PITAL  PUNISHMENT. 

"Capital  punishment  is  a  relic  of  the  days  when  men  were 
forced  to  trod  red-hot  ploughshares  to  prove  their  innocence," 
said  John  Trotwood  Moore,  Tennessee's  distinguished  novelist, 
talking  on  the  subject  last  night. 

"I  (1(^  not  believe  in  taking  a  man's  life  for  having  commit- 
ted a  crime.  That  is  a  barbarous  custom,  a  relic  of  ancient  days. 
We  must  he  progressive,  and  more  humane  toward  our  fellow- 
mortals. 

"It  seems  to  me  that  in  a  Christian  land,  with  all  our  boasted 
Christianity,  we  should  practice  such,  and  abolish  this  terrible 
method  of  punishment. 

"Ca])ital  punishment  does  not  prevent  crime.  We  make  use 
of  it  in  Tcnnesseee.  yet  murders  are  continually  committed.  Why 
not  try  the  other  method? 

"\yhen  a  man's  life  is  taken  at  the  end  of  a  rope,  or  in  the 
electric  chair,  his  usefulness  is  done  for.  He  is  of  no  value  to 
the  State,  or  to  society. 

—  44  — 


'"Xow  it  such  men  were  placed  in  the  penitentiary  they  would 
have  to  work  for  the  State,  and  he  of  concrete  value  to  the  State. 
In  the  same  time  such  a  man  might  reform  while  in  prison,  and 
be  a   factor  for  good  in  that  institution. 

"There  is  the  case  of  Cole  Younger.  When  a  boy  his  father 
was  killed  by  bushwhackers,  and  he  entered  into  killing  others. 
When  surrender  was  declared  they  refused  to  let  Cole  Younger 
surrender.  Later  he  was  placed  in  the  penitentiary.  There  he 
proved  to  be  a  model  prisoner,  and  won  the  love  of  all  about  him. 

"In  fact  he  was  so  industrious,  and  so  perfect  in  conduct  that 
he  won  the  sympathy  of  all  wardens  under  whom  he  served,  until 
the  mater  was  called  to  the  attention  of  the  Chief  Executive  of 
that  State,  and  when  put  to  the  people  as  to  whether  Cole 
Younger  should  be  pardoned,  after  having  served  twenty-five 
years  for  the  State,  it  was  overwhelmingly  decided  that  he  should 
have  his  life  and  liberty. 

Today  that  man  is  a  good  citizen,  and  has  even  become  the 
president  of  ;'.  railroad.  He  gave  twenty-five  years  of  his  life 
to  the  State — was  that  not  enough?  Now,  isn't  he  of  better 
use  to  humanity  in  general  than  if  his,  life  had  been  snapped  out? 

"I  think  that  we  should  allow  our  women  to  vote,  for  by  so 
doing  our  laws  would  become  more  humane.  I  think  that  if 
women  had  the  ballot  in  Tennessee  this  barbarous  custom  would 
be  speedily  abolished.  And  I  sincerely  hope  that  this  session  of 
the  Legislature  will  work  to  that  end. — Xaslii'ille  7  emiessean.  and 
American,  January  26.  1913. 

JUDGE  R.  H.  PRESCOTT,  ONE  OF  THE  LEADING 
CRIMINAL  LAWYERS  OF  THE  SOUTH. 

Mr.  Duke  C.  Boiccrs,  Dresden.  Tcnn.: 

Dear  Sir  : — I  am  in  receipt  of  your  request  that  I  give  you 
my  views  concerning  Capital  Punishment,  as  now  provided  by 
the  statutory  enactments  of  our  State. 

In  reply  will  say  that  as  a  penalty  for  the  infraction  of  the  law 
I  believe  it  to  be  a  failure.  In  the  very  face  of  the  most  extreme 
punishment  more  murders  are  committed  yearly  in  the  United 
States  than  ever  before,  especially  in  the  history  of  the  large 
American  cities  and  the  territory  adjacent  to  them.     It  does  not 

—  45  — 


prohibit;  it  never  has;  it  never  will.  The  man  who  kills  with 
cool,  deliberate  purpose  and  premeditation  moved  by  malice  does 
not  pause  to  reflect  upon  the  consequences  of  his  act,  and  the  fact 
that  it  is  written  in  the  law  that  murder  in  the  first  degree  shall 
be  punished  by  death  by  hanging  is  no  deterrent  or  restraint  to 
him.  In  fact,  I  am  constrained  from  many  years'  practice  in  the 
Criminal  Court  to  believe  that  punishment  of  all  kinds  do  not 
restrain  from  an  infraction  of  the  law,  except  in  the  rarest  in- 
stances. I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  impulse  to  commit  crime 
is  in  the  blood,  like  some  dissease  that  lurks  in  the  human  body, 
and  is  nurtured  by  the  infirmities  and  frailties  of  human  nature. 

On  the  other  hand,  often  a  good  citizen  is  impelled,  by  sudden 
impulse  of  passion,  to  perpetrate  violence  against  the  person 
of  his  fellowman.  Not  one  criminal  in  ten  thousand  stops  to  con- 
sider the  consequences  of  his  act. 

After  all  there  is  no  law  or  its  enforcement  save  that  reposed 
in  and  reflected  by  the  virtues  and  patriotism  of  the  masses  of  the 
people.  And  capital  punishment  does  not  add  to  or  stimulate 
either  of  these  characteristics.  To  take  life,  even  by  authority  of 
law,  is  abhorrent  to  the  better  feelings  and  ideas  of  justice  of 
the  average  man.  Down  in  his  heart  he  has  an  idea  that  it  is 
wrong — that  it  is  a  bloody,  cruel,  surviving  relic  of  the  past  ages 
wherein  men  were  sought  to  be  ruled  by  power  of  might  and 
not  right.  Humane  methods  of  government  have  advanced  with 
civilization.     As  a  rule,  men  are  more  humane,  kind  and  gentle. 

I  do  not  touch  on  the  moral  right  to  take  human  life  by  opera- 
tion of  law.  That  is  a  question  that  must  appeal  to  each  indi- 
vidual. I  do  not  believe  we  have  the  right  as  a  government  to 
execute  one  of  our  citizens.  History  teaches  that  it  had  its  origin 
in  revenge.  In  the  early  history  of  England  the  next  of  kin  to 
the  deceased  had  the  right  to  pursue  and  kill  the  assailant.  This 
give  way  to  a  kind  of  tribal  court. 

It  is  interesting  to  study  the  origin  of  capital  punishment. 
The  Mosaic  Law.  as  to  that,  is  but  a  reflection  of  the  custom  of 
the  times,  and  but  an  expression  of  the  customs  of  previous 
ages.     In  my  opinion  there  was  no  divine  sanction  for  it. 

Again,  mistakes  have  been  made  and  clearly  demonstrated, 
in  verdicts  of  guilt,  but  too  late  to  do  any  good,  because  the  de- 
fendant had  paid  the  unjust  penalty. 

—  46  — 


I  am  enclosing  a  copy  of  a  poem,  by  Ella  \\  heeler  Wilcox, 
on  the  subject  of  capital  punishment.     It  is  the  best  I  have  seen. 

Wishing  you  success  in  your  movement,  I  remain  yours 
very  truly,  R.  H,  Prescott. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Banner 

In  your  issue  of  January  30,  you  publish,  in  your  Forum  of 
the  I'eople.  a  letter  from  A.  A.  Xorth.  I  woukl  thank  you  to 
publish  this  reply,  hoping  that  he  will  see  it,  and  that  it  will  con- 
vince him  that  there  is  logic  as  well  as  sentiment  in  the  proposed 
movement  to  do  away  with  capital  punishment  in  Tennessee. 

Mr.  North  apparently  thinks  that  we  should  not  be  controlled 
by  sentiment  and  sympathy,  yet  if  he  will  investigate  all  of  the 
great  movements  that  have  done  more  to  civilize  all  nations  he 
will  find  that  these  two  great  motive  powers  have  had  much  to 
do  with  it. 

But  I  am  willing  to  discount  these  considerations  and  place 
my  argument  before  him  on  a  sound  basis  of  logic,  reason  and 
statistics.  Many  men  believe  that  one  fact  is  worth  a  hundred 
analogies,  and,  like  Mr.  North,  insist  on  knowing  "how  it  works" 
before  they  will  give  up  the  old  for  the  new.  And  some  are  even 
so  constituted  that  offering  undeniable  facts  to  controvert  their 
position  will  even  then  fail  to  put  their  minds  in  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  progress.  The  idea  of  the  abolishment  of  the  death 
penalty  is  no  new  theory,  and  has  been  in  practice  for  a  number 
of  years  in  many  States  and  countries.  Former  Warden  Hatch, 
of  the  Michigan  State  prison,  said :  ''Michigan  is  a  poor  shib- 
boleth for  capital  punishment  advocates,  for  it  is  about  the  only 
State  in  the  Union  that  shows  a  decided  falling  ofT  in  the  crimi- 
nal populations.  /  believe  it  impossible  to  reinstate  the  lazv  au- 
thorising the  death  penalty  in  this  State.  The  civilized  world 
is  tending  toward  the  abolition  of  the  law  of  death  for  crime,  and 
the  number  of  executions  is  constantly  decreasing.  In  this  coun- 
try the  States  of  Kansas,  Maine.  ^Iichigan.  Rhode  Island  and 
Wisconsin  have  abolished  the  death  penalty,  and  the  statistics 
show  that  in  those  States  for  the  last  decade  and  more  crimes 
and  criminals  have  been  on  a  decrease. 

In  the  State  of  Rhode  Island,  according  to  the  statistics  of 
the  Bureau  of  Census,  there  was  but  five  homicides  in  that  State 

—  47  — 


to  each  loo.ooo  population ;  while  in  the  State  of  Connecticut, 
which  is  an  adjoining  State,  and  similar  in  conditions,  there  were 
eight  homicides  to  every  100,000.  In  the  State  of  :Maine  there 
were  only  2.2  homicides  to  a  population  of  100,000,  while  in  the 
State  of  N'ermont,  which  is  very  similar  to  the  State  of  Maine, 
there  was  7.6  homicides  to  every  100,000  population.  These  same 
statistics  hold  good  throughout  the  entire  list  of  the  States  that 
have  abolished  capital  punishment. 

Again,  when  people  are  imbued  with  the  value  of  life  as 
taught  them  by  the  example  and  precept  of  the  State  that  human 
life  is  sacred,  they  will  themselves  appreciate  that  value  more 
than  ever.  To  show  the  effects  of  the  two  methods  of  dealing 
with  murderers,  statistics  have  been  compiled  as  to  the  number 
of  convictions  in  Rhode  Island,  as  compared  with  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut,  for  various  periods.  In  Connecticut  it  was 
shown  that  from  the  year  1850  to  1880  there  were  ninety-seven 
persons  tried  for  murder  in  the  first  degree,  and  but  thirteen 
of  that  number  or  a  little  over  13  per  cent,  wre  convicted  as 
charged.  In  Massachusetts  from  1862  to  1882,  a  twenty-year 
period,  the  number  tried  for  murder  in  the  first  degree  was  170, 
with  twenty-nine  convictions,  or  17  per  cent  of  the  number  tried. 
But  the  convictions  in  Rhode  Island,  in  thirty  years  after  the 
abolishment  of  the  punishment  of  death,  numbered  6}^  per  cent 
of  the  number  tried.  Thus  experience  speaks  with  no  uncertain 
voice  as  to  the  advisability  of  abolishing  the  penalty  of  death. 
Reason  adds  her  plea  to  mercy  in  demanding  a  more  sensible  and 
humaiie  method  of  dealing  with  felons,  and  there  seems  to  be 
no  good  reason  why  every  man  should  not  work  to  have  our 
present  Legislature  pass  the  enactment  amending  the  present 
law  of  the  death  penalty. 

Mr.  North  makes  the  statement  that  the  fear  of  death  is  a 
strong  deterrent  for  crime,  but  this  apparently  has  not  proven 
true  in  Tennessee,  for  capital  crimes  in  this  State  are  not  on  the 
decrease,  but  on  the  increase.  Every  man  knows  before  he  com- 
mits any  crime  that  there  is  a  penalty  attached,  but  that  appar- 
ently does  not  deter  him.  In  order  to  arrive  at  a  correct  con- 
clusion to  Mr.  North's  argument,  we  must  try  to  see  the  case 
from  the  viewpoint  of  the  nnirderer  himself.  If  any  man  takes 
the  time  necessary  for  deliberation  to  make  his  crime  murder 
in  the  first  degree,  what  is  likely  to  be  his  line  of  thought?   Will 

—  48  — 


the  penalty  attached  as  a  punishment  enter  at  all  into  his  consid- 
eration of  the  case? 

That  depends  upon  the  character  of  the  man,  the  degree  of 
his  malignity,  or  the  intensity  of  his  purpose.  There  are  some 
men  so  constituted  that  they  would  scarcely  give  a  serious 
thought  to  the  probable  result  of  their  actions.  A  determina- 
tion to  have  revenge,  or  whatever  their  object  might  be,  would 
overcome  every  other  consideration,  and  they  would  carry  out 
their  evil  purpose,  no  matter  whether  the  punishment  be  burning 
at  the  stake,  or  simply  a  fine  and  imprisonment. 

Others,  and  perhaps  the  large  majority,  would  think  of  the 
threatened  punishment.  Suppose  they  do,  knowing  that  a  severe 
penalty  is  attached  will  not  remove  their  evil  desire  to  commit 
the  deed.  It  isniply  puts  them  to  devising  ways  and  means  to 
escape  detection.  When  they  have  settled  this  to  their  satisfac- 
tion, they  will  no  more  hesitate  to  perpetrate  the  deed  than  they 
would  if  there  were  no  punishment,  because  they  have  convinced 
themselves  that  they  can  escape  the  legal  penalty.  Today  many 
of  our  jurors  have  a  personal  prejudice  against  capital  punish- 
ment, and  many  men  who  would  have  been  convicted  for  life  im- 
prisonment as  the  penalty,  are  dismissed  without  punishment. 
The  man  who  has  nothing  but  the  fear  of  punishment  between 
him  and  murder,  has  only  the  chance  of  escape  to  consider. 
When  he  has  this  arranged  to  suit  himself,  the  act  will  be  com- 
mitted, because  what  matters  it  to  him  whether  the  punishment 
be  light  or  severe,  so  long  as  he  confidently  expects  to  escape  the 
penalty  entirely?  One  of  the  greatest  criminologists  the  world 
has  known,  Beccaria,  says : 

"Perpetual  slavery  has  in  it  all  that  is  necessary  to  deter  the 
most  hardened  and  determined  as  much  as  has  the  punishment 
of  death.  I  say  it  has  more.  There  are  men  who  can  look  upon 
death  with  intrepidity  and  firmness,  some  through  fanactism, 
others  through  vanity,  which  attend  us  even  to  the  grave,  others 
from  a  desperate  resolution  to  get  rid  of  their  misery,  and  cease 
to  live." 

Life  has  strong  claims  upon  the  healthy,  the  industrious,  the 
happy  and  the  good,  but  to  the  diseased,  the  indolent,  the  poverty- 
stricken  and  the  vicious,  it  is  oftentimes  a  sad  mixture,  with  more 

—  49  — 


misery  than  pleasure,  and  is  frequently  regarded  more  as  a  curse 
to  be  thrown  off,  than  as  a  blessing  to  be  cherished.  Lord  Byron 
is  said  to  have  decleared  that  he  had  never  known  more  than 
twelve  happy  days  in  all  his  life.  The  United  States  mortality 
statistics  show  that  in  the  cause  of  death  the  annual  average  for 
homicides  from  the  year  1900  to  1909  was  1608,  but  the  annual 
average  from  suicides  5,560,  thus  showing  that  the  fear  of  death 
is  no  argument  to  those  who  have  the  intention  of  committing 
murder. 

The  sentiment  of  every  enlightened  people  is  against  the  in- 
fliction of  the  death  penalty,  whether  they  are  conscious  of  the 
fact  or  not,  they  will  raise  doubts  not  testified  by  the  evidence, 
to  avoid  assuming  the  responsibility  of  condemning  a  fellow- 
creature  to  death,  a  responsibility  which  most  men  feel  is  too 
great  for  erring  man  to  take  upon  himself.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  in  Chicago  one  man  out  of  every  fifty-four  tried  for  murder 
in  the  first  degree  is  made  to  suffer  the  penalty. 

Mr.  North  brings  in  the  argument  of  mob  law.  I  would  like 
to  quote  him  Horace  Greelye's  objection  to  capital  punishment 
on  this  point.  "I  dread  human  fallibility.  Men  are  prejudiced, 
passionate,  and  too  often  irrational.  Today  they  shout  'Hosanna,' 
and  tomorrow  howl  'Crucify  Him.'  I  would  save  them  from  the 
harsher  consequences  of  their  own  frenzy.  Our  Savior  is  by 
no  means  a  solitary  example  of  the  unjust  execution  of  the  inno- 
cent and  just.  We  have  recorded  instances  of  innocent  men  con- 
victed of  murder  on  their  own  confession,  of  men  convicted,  sen- 
tenced and  hung  for  oft'enses  whereof  they  were  in  on  wise  guilty. 
Men  may  suffer  unjustly,  even  though  death  be  stricken  from 
the  list  of  our  legal  penalties.  So  long  as  man  is  liable  to  error, 
I  would  have  him  reserve  the  possibility  of  correcting  his  mis- 
take, and  correcting  the  wrong  he  has  been  led  into  perperating." 

In  speaking  of  life  imprisonment,  Mr.  North  says:  "Prison 
bars  may  be  sawed  in  two,  pardons  may  be  obtained."  If  Mr. 
North  will  investigate  the  statistics  of  our  own  State  prison  he 
will  find  that  eighty-nine  per  cent  of  those  given  a  life  sentence 
die  in  that  institution;  that  only  five  and  three-tenths  per  cent 
are  pardoned,  and  five  and  seven-tcnlhs  per  cent  of  life  terms 
are  coiumuted.  He  will  also  find  that  in  the  history  of  that  in- 
stitution that  there  has  never  been  a  life    prisoner    to    escape. 

—  50  — 


Therefore  he  has  based  much  of  his  letter  on  statements  that 
he  cannot  substantiate,  and  I  personally  would  like  to  meet  Mr. 
North  and  submit  to  him  even  more  statistics;  and  many  more 
arguments,  against  capital  punishment  than  I  can  place  in  this 
letter  because  I  know  that  1  have  even  now  imposed  on  your 
good  nature  and  have  occupied  a  bit  more  space  than  I  should. 

Henry  W.  Lewis. 

SIX   REASONS.  ^^ 

Why  Capital   Punishment  Should  Be  Abolished. 

reason   no.    i. 
It   does    not    deter   the   commission   of   murder.      There    are 
fewer  murdes  per  capita  in  states  which  have  abolished  the  death 
sentence — as  in  Maine  and  Wisconsin — than  in  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  which  still  retain  it. 

REASON    NO.   2. 

Innocent  individuals  are  occasionally  executed,  which  makes 
the  State  a  murder  of  the  worst  kind.  Capital  punishment  pre- 
vents reparation  in  cases  of  subquently  proven  innocence. 

REASON   NO.   3. 

Two  or  more  men,  organized  under  a  form  of  government, 
have  no  more  right  to  take  life  than  one  man  has.  It  is  murder  in 
either  case,  and  brutalizing  in  both. 

REASON  NO.  4. 
It  is  certainly  a  relic  of  barbarism.     To  abolish  it  would  be 
a  step  forward.     As  civilization  has  advanced,  punishment  has 
always  become  less  severe  and  crime  has  also  become  less  com- 
mon. 

REASON    NO.    5. 

Capital  punishment  usually  deprives  the  criminal  of  the  one 
due  which  civilized  society  owes  its  unfortunate  children  of  this 
class — the  chance  for  spiritual  reformation  and  expiation  to  pre- 
pare for  the  hereafter. 

REASON    NO.   6. 

Life  improsionment  is  a  severer  and  juster  punishment  for  a 
murderer  than  to  be  given  early  his  earthly  quietus.  Those  States 
which  sanction  legal  murder  do  more — they  murder  civilization. 

—  51  — 


EXTRACT. 

Because  the  m^ijority  of  men  sentenced  to  death  petition  for 
a  commutation  to  life  iiuprisonment,  is  not  by  any  means,  con- 
chisive  evidence  that  death  is  a  more  severe  punishment,  nor  that 
it  acts  as  a  stronger  deterent.  As  a  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  think 
to  give  a  life  sentence  would  do  more  good  than  the  infliction 
of  "the    death     penalty.       I.ike     extracting    a     tooth,     we     put 

it  oft'  as  long  as  possible  and  really  suffer  more  than  if  we  had 
had  the  tooth  pulled  when  it  first  pained  us.  So  with  a  life 
prisoner,  as  a  deterent.  ITe  takes  the  life  sentence  in  preference 
to  hanging.  Had  he  been  hanged  the  matter  would  have  been 
forgotten,  but  while  in  prison  he  is  a  continuing  example  to  keep 
others  from  committing  crime  and  meeting  a  like  fate.  Besides 
if  it  devclopes  he  is  innocent  he  can  be  freed  and  at  all  events 
he  will  be  given  time  to  reform  and  expiate  his  crime  and  pre- 
pare for  the  hereafter. 

....  Prisoners  Do  Not  Contemtlate  Any  Punishment 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  criminals  who  commit  infamous  crimes, 
commit  them  under  circumstances,  by  which  they  expect  to  escape 
detection  or  capture  entirely.  I  remember  within  i6  months, 
four  men  who  had  committed  murder,  in  Weakley  County,  Tenn., 
escaped  and  neither  has  ever  been  apprehended.  We  should 
have  better  facilities  in  Tennessee  for  catching  criminals  and 
make  the  law  against  procuring  and  carrying  the  means  with 
which  to  commit  murder,  adequate  to  restrict  the  use  of  deadly 
weapons;  then  have  Jury  Commissions  for  each  County  and  make 
punishment  swift  and  certain  for  crimes  in  Tennessee  and  crimes 
will  diminish. 


—  52  — 


EXTRACT    FROM    AGUMENT   AGAIXST    THE    DEATH 

PENALTY. 

While  we  submit  that  where  the  equities  are  equal,  the  ele- 
ment of  mercv  should  hold  the  balance  of  power  in  decidins:  this 
question,  we  would  not  have  appealed  to  you  on  that  s^round.  had 
not  a  ce''tain  Attorney-tieneral,  with  a  master  hand  pictured,  in  an 
article  in  the  Nashville  papers  of  the  ist  inst.,  the  awful  suffer- 
ing and  remorse  of  the  family  o  fthe  vicitm  of  a  homicide.  Now 
we  agree  that  it  is  hard  on  the  family  of  the  deceased  and  our 
sympathy  goes  out  to  them,  whether  his  death  was  the  result  of 
an  assassination  or  a  justifiable  homicide  it  is  all  the  same  to 
them  in  either  case.  But  for  that  reason  would  you  have  two 
widows,  two  sets  of  orphans  and  two  sorrowing  parents  ?  Why, 
the  family  of  the  prisoner  are  just  as  innocent  of  an  offense  as 
the  family  of  the  deceased,  and  are  just  as  much  entitled  to  com- 
passion and  sympathy.  For  example,  a  man  commits  murder. 
He  probably  got  drunk  or  was  by  environment  made  a  criminal. 
He  has  a  good  wife  and  also  children;  a  good  mother  and  father 
and  a  large  number  of  relatives,  all  innocent  people  and  pro- 
foundly grieved  that  the  offense  was  committed.  The  accused 
is  tried  and  convicted  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  The  very 
thoughts  of  taking  the  life  of  the  husband,  father,  brother  and 
son  breaks  a  multitude  of  hearts.  The  time  has  healed  the  wounds 
that  grief  for  the  victim  rent,  but  as  the  days  roll  by  and  the 
time  approaches  for  the  execution  of  the  prisoner  the  heart 
of  the  mother  and  father  all  but  breaks ;  the  affectionate  and 
tender  cord  of  love  that  stretches  from  the  altar  to  the  scaffold 
is  cnished  but  not  broken,  and  the  heart  of  the  wife  once  ,gay  is 
burned  to  its  very  socket.  She  goes  to  and  from  the  awful  death 
sell.  Little  innocent  hearts  of  children  are  crushed  like  the  ten- 
der blades  of  grass,  beneath  the  angry  wheels  of  cannon  on  the 
Turkish  battlefield,  yet  they  are  all  innocent.  The  brother  and 
sister  suffer  for  his  sins,  and  see  his  ghost-like  form  in  their 
dreams  of  repose.  As  the  day  draws  near  the  father  and  mother 
with  tottering  footsteps  visit  the  death  cell,  and  their  minds  won- 
der back  to  the  time  when  a  little  boy  said  his  prayers  at  his 
mother's  knee  and  whistled  the  tune  that  his  father  carrolled  and 
they  ask  God  "why  they  have  this  affliction  to  bear."  The  wife, 
children  and  relativ^es  and  friends  all  bid  him  goodby  and  leave 
with   breaking  hearts,   "bitterly   thinking  of  tomorrow."     With 

—  53  — 


heart-breaking  despair,  the  mother  prays  God  to  spare  her  child, 
and  as  the  time  Ayes  by  the  height  of  heaven  could  not  measure 
her  sorrow.  The  father's  hair  turns  gray  over  night,  and  the 
very  souls  all  are  scarred  and  forever  seared  over  by  the  thought 
of  the  vengeance  visited  on  their  unfortunate  relative,  son  and 
husand  and  father.  The  parents  are  hurried  to  their  graves  of 
broken  hearts,  the  wife  tries  to  forget,  but  cannot  forgive  and 
the  hearts  of  the  children,  relatives  and  friends  are  hardened 
by  the  harrowing  example  of  killing  by  the  State.  Two  families 
are  in  mourning  and  the  prisoner's  family  crushed  and  heart 
broken  by  a  protracted  suspense,  and  that  amounts  to  cruelty  to 
the  innocents.  Then  why  make  two  families  instead  of  one  deso- 
late? Then  supix)se  he  was  innocent  ?  The  State  cannot  retract 
what  it  has  done.  If  life  imprsonment  would  serve  the  same 
purpose,  would  you  not  prefer  it  to  the  death  penalty. 

The  French  painter  has  depicted  a  weired  but  striking  pic- 
ture. In  the  dreary  hours  of  night  Napoleon's  drummer  boy 
is  made  to  arise  and  sound  the  march.  The  ghost  of  Napoleon 
comes  forward  and  stands  attention ;  and  then  the  Grand  Army 
and  the  Old  Guard  pass  by  in  solemn  review  before  the  "Arch 
Angel  of  War."  They  come  from  Areola,  from  Lodi,  from 
Australitz,  from  Waterloo.  As  you  are  considering  the  passage 
of  this  law,  the  blood  of  the  luany  martyrs  of  the  block,  the  gil- 
lotine  and  the  gibet  appeal  to  you  to  abolish  the  law  that  is 
founded  on  vengeance  and  destruction  instead  of  mercy  and 
reform." 

CRIMES  AND  THEIR  PENALTIES. 

Compiled  From  the  Codes  or  Revised  Statutes  of  the  Sev- 
eral States  as  Amended  rv  SunsEouENT  Legislation. 

Murder  in  the  first  degree,  in  the  table  below,  may  be  gen- 
erally defined  to  Ije  the  unlawful,  intentional  and  premeditated 
killing  of  a  human  being,  or  such  a  killing  resulting  from  the 
commission  or  attempt  to  commit  one  of  the  graver  crimes,  such 
as  arson,  burglary,  rape  or  robbery. 

Alabama — For  murder,  first  degree,  deatli  or  life  -mprisonment :  rob- 
bery.  death  or  not  less  than  lo  years;  rape,  death  or  not  less  than  lo 
years ;  arson,  first  degree,  death  or  not  lessi  than  lO  years. 

—  54  — 


.'vlaska — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  robbery. 

1  to  15  years;  rape,  3  to  20  years;  arson,  first  degree,  10  to  20  years. 

Arizona — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  hfc  imprisonment;  rob- 
bery, not  less  than  5  years ;  rape,  not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life ; 
arson,  first  degree,  not  less  than  2  years. 

Arkansas — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  3  to  21  years ; 
rape,  death  to  10  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  2  to  10  years. 

California — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  not  les  than  i  year;  rape,  rot  less  than  5  years;  arson,  first  de- 
gree, not  less  than  2  years. 

Colorado — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  rob- 
bery, 3  to  14  years ;  rape,  i  to  20  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  t  to  10 
years. 

Connecticut — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  [robbery,  nolt  over  7 
years ;  rape,  not  over  30  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  not  over  10  years. 

Delaware — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  not  over  12  years; 
rape,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  arson,  first  degree,  death. 

Florida — For  murder,  first  deeree.  death;  robbery,  not  over  20  years; 
raoe,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  arson,  first  detrree,  any  term  up  to 
life. 

Georg'a — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  rol)- 
bery.  4  to  20  years;  rape,  death  or  i  to  20  years;  arson,  first  degree.  5  to 
20  years. 

Idaho — For  nuirdcr.  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  robbery, 
not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life;  rape,  not  less  than  5  vears  and  up 
to  life;  arson,  first  degree,  not  less  than  2  years  and  up  to  life. 

Illinois — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  not  less  than  14  years  and 
up  to  life;  robbery,  i  year  and  up  to  life;  rape,  i  year  and  up  to  life: 
arson,  i  to  20  years. 

Indiana — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imnrisonment ;  robbery. 

2  to  14  years,  $1,000;  rape  2  to  21  years;  arson,  first  degree,  2  to  21  years. 

Iowa — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  I'fe  imprisonment;  robbery. 
10  to  20  years:  rape,  any  term  up  to  life;  arson,  first  degree,  any  term 
up  to  life. 

Kansas — For  murder,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment ;  robbery,  10  to  21 
years;  rape.  5  to  21  years;  arson,  first  degree.  10  to  21  years. 

Kentucky — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  rob- 
bery, 2  to  TO  years ;  rape,  death  or  10  to  20  years :  arson,  first  degree. 
TO  to  20  years. 

Louisiana — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  not  over  14 
years ^   rape,  death;   arson,  first  degree,  death. 

Maine — For  murder,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment ;  robbery,  any 
term  of  years;  rape,  any  term  of  years;  arson,  first  degree,  life. 


—  55  — 


Maryland— For  murder,  iirsl  degree,  death;  robbery,  3  to  10  years; 
rape,  death  or  18  months  to  21  years;  arson,  first  degree,  death  or  not 
over  20  years. 

Massachusetts — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  life  im- 
prisonment ;  rape,  life  imprisonment  or  any  term  of  years ;  arson,  first 
degree,  life  imprisonment  or  any  term  of  years. 

Michigan— For  murder,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment ;  robbery,  life 
imprisonment  or  any  term  of  years ;  rape,  life  imprisonment  or  any  term 
of  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment  or  any  term  of  years. 

Minnesota — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  5  to  40  years; 
rape,  7  to  30  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  not  less  than  10  years. 

Mississippi — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  not  over  15  years;  rape  and  first-degree  arson,  death  or  life  im- 
prisonment. 

Missouri — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  rob- 
bery, not  less  than  5  years ;  rape,  death  or  not  less  than  5  years ;  arson, 
first  degree,  not  less  than  5  years. 

Montana — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  rob- 
bery, I  to  20  years ;  rape,  not  less  than  5  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  not 
less  than  5  years. 

Nebraska — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  iniorisonment ;  rob- 
bery, 3  to  15  years;  rape.  3  to  20  years;  arson,  first  degree,  i  to  20 
years. 

Nevada — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  rob- 
bery, not  less  than  5  years;  rape,  not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life; 
arson,  first  degree,  not  less  than  2  years  and  up  to  life. 

New  Hampshire — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprison- 
ment; robbery,  not  over  30  years;  rape,  not  over  30  years;  arson,  first 
degree,  not  over  30  years. 

New  Jersey — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  15  years  or 
$1,000,  or  both;   rape,  $5,000  or  both;   arson,  first  degree,  $2,000  or  both. 

New  York — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  not  over  20 
years;  rape,  not  over  20  years;  arson,  first  degree,  not  over  40  years. 

North  Carolina — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  no  statutory 
definition ;  rape,  death ;  arson,  first  degree,  death. 

North  Dakota — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  not  less  than  i  year ;  rape,  not  less  than  10  years ;  arson,  first 
degree,  not  less  than  10  years. 

Ohio— For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  robbery, 
I  to  15  years;  rape,  3  to  20  years;  arson,  first  degree,  not  over  20 
years. 

Oklahoma— For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  not  less  than  10  years;  rape,  not  less  than  10  vears;  arson,  first 
degree,  20  to  30  years. 

—  56  — 


Oregon — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  not  less  than  lo 
years  and  up  to  life ;  rape,  3  to  20  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  lo  to  20 
years. 

Pennsylvania — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  not  over  10 
years  and  $1,000;  rape,  not  over  15  years  and  $1,000;  arson,  first  degree, 
not  over  20  years  and  $4,000. 

Rhode  Island — For  murder,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment ;  robbery, 
not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life ;  rape,  not  less  than  10  years  and  up 
to  life ;  arson,  first  degree,  not  less  than  10  years  and  up  to  life. 

South  Carolina — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ; 
robbery,  no  statutory  definition;  rape,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  arson, 
first  degree,  death  or  not  less  than  10  years. 

South  Dakota — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  10  to  20  years;  rape,  not  less  than  10  years;  arson,  first  degree, 
not  less  than  10  years. 

Tcnn2ssee — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  5  to  15  years; 
rape,  death  or  not  less  than  10  years  and  up  to  life ;  arson,  first  degree, 
5  to  21  years. 

Texas — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  robbery, 
not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life ;  rape,  death  or  any  term  over  5  years 
up  to  life;  arson,  first  degree,  5  to  20  years. 

Utah — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment;  robbery, 
not  less  than  5  years  and  up  to  life;  rape,  not  less  than  5  years;  arson, 
first  degree.  2  to  15  years. 

Vermont — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ;  rob- 
bery, not  over  20  years;  and  $1,000;  rape,  not  over  20  years  or  $2,000,  or 
both;  arson,  first  degree,  any  term  up  to  life. 

Virginia — For  murder,  first  degree,  death ;  robbery,  death  or  8  to  18 
years ;  rape,  death  or  5  to  20  years ;  arson,  first  degree,  death. 

Washington — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment ; 
robbery,  not  less  than  5  years ;  rape,  not  less  than  5  years ;  arson,  first 
degree,  not  less  than  5  years. 

West  Virginia — For  murder,  first  degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment; 
robbery,  not  less  than  10  years ;  rape,  death  or  7  to  20  years ;  arson,  first 
degree,  death  or  life  imprisonment. 

Wisconsin — For  murder,  first  degree,  life  imprisonment;  robbery.  3  to 
10  years;  rape.  10  to  30  years;  arson,  first  degree,  7  to  14  years. 

Wyoming — For  murder,  first  degree,  death;  robbery,  not  over  14  years; 
rape,  not  less  than  i  year  and  up  to  life ;  arson,  first  degree,  not  over 
21  years. 


—  57  — 


LYNCHINGS     AND     LEGAL     EXECUTIONS. 

Lyiichings — The  total  number  of  ^nchings  in  the  United  States  from 
1S85  to  November  15,  1912,  was  3,413.  In  19T2,  to  November  15,  there 
were  52  lynchings,  of  which  49  occurred  in  the  South  and  3  in  the  North ; 
49  were  males  and  3  females.  Of  the  Ijnched,  50  were  negroes  and  2 
whites.  The  offenses  for  which  they  were  lynched  were:  Rap,,  10; 
nnirdcr,  26;  attempted  rape,  2;  insults  to  white  women,  3;  unknown 
causes,  i ;  robbery  and  assault,  i ;  race  prejudice,  i ;  arson,  3 ;  complicity 
in  murder,  3;  murderous  assaults,  2.  The  States  in  which  the  lynch-'ngs 
occurred  and  the  number  in  each  were  as  follows :  Alabama,  5 ;  Arkan- 
sas. 3;  Florida,  3;  Georgia,  11;  Louisiana,  4;  Mississippi,  5;  Montana,  i; 
North  Carolina,  i ;  North  Dakota,  i ;  Oregon,  i  ;  Virginia,  i ;  West  Vir- 
g'nia.  i;  Wyoming,  i;  Oklahoma,  i;  Pennsylvania,  5;  South  Carolina,  5; 
Texas,  3. 

Legal  Executions — In  1908,  to  November  15,  there  were  92;  in  1909 
there  were  107;  in  1910  there  were  104:  in  191 1  there  were  61;  and  in 
1912.  to  November  15,  there  were  128,  of  which  62  were  in  the  North 
and  66  in  the  South ;  89  were  whites  and  39  were  colored ;  127  were  males 
and  I  female.  The  crimes  for  which  they  were  executed  were :  Murder, 
125;  rape,  3.  The  States  in  which  the  executions  in  1912,  to  November  15. 
took  place,  and  the  number  in  each,  were  as  follows:  Alabama.  4; 
Arkansas.  8;  Calofirnia,  4;  Connecticut.  2;  Colorado,  i;  Florida,  3; 
Geoi..da,  9;  Ilhnois,  6;  Kentucky,  4;  Massachusetts,  5;  Maryland,  i: 
Mississippi.  7;  Missouri,  i;  New  York,  21;  New  Jersey,  4;  North  Caro- 
lina. 4;  Nevada,  2;  Ohio,  i;  Pennsylvania.  6:  South  Carolina.  5;  Tennes- 
see, 9;  Texas,  4;  Utah,  6;  Vermont,  i;  Washington,  2;  Wyoming,  2; 
Virginia.  6.—Fmm  a  table  prepared  by  Geo.  P.  Upton,  Chicago,  III. 


—  58-- 


APPENDIX. 
TO  ABOLISH  DEATH  PENALTY. 

C.  C.  GILBERT.  OF  D.WIDSON. 

".-\s  long^  as  the  human  race  will  be  called  to  sit  in  judj^ment 
over  a  fellow  creature  and  are  sworn  to  decide  whether  he  must 
die,  the  death,  penalty  must  be  a  question  of  urg^ent  interest  and 
one  upon  which  every  man  should  form  an  intelligent  opinion." 
The  above  statement  was  made  by  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Gilbert,  mem- 
ber of  the  Legislature  from  Davidson  County,  who  will.  Tuesday, 
introduce  a  bill  to  abolish  the  death  penalty. 

"The  more  I  study  this  problem,  the  more  I  am  convinced 
that  to  punish  murder  by  death  is  wrong."  continued  Mr.  Gilbert. 
"If  a  man's  judgment  c.')ul(l  possibly  be  infallible  then  a  remote 
excuse  for  caj^ital  punishment  might  exist.  Looking  at  this  sub- 
ject from  one  viewpoint  it  seems  incredible  that  in  this  wonderful 
age.  when  civilization  is  reaching  its  highest  point  in  the  history 
of  man,  that  the  same  spirit  of  revenge  that  existed  when  the 
human  race  was  still  in  its  infancy  should  still  control  the  people 
of  Tennessee  in  their  treatment  of  its  most  unfortunate  class. 

".Ml  that  is  needed  to  erase  the  punishment  of  death  from 
our  statutes  is  to  get  our  citizens  to  throw  aside  their  prejudice 
long  enough  to  examine  the  case  fairly  and  intelligently.  As 
Wendell  Phillip  says:  'To  get  men  to  listen  is  half  the  battle,  and 
the  hardest  half  in  all  reforms.'  Many  persons  never  investigate 
a  subject  with  any  other  jjurpose  than  to  strengthen  the  opinions 
and  prejudice  they  already  hold.  It  is  a  fact  that  a  large  majority 
of  those  who  have  studied  this  subject  fairly  are  impressed  with 
doubts  of  the  righteousness  of  the  death  penalty,  sufficient,  at 
least,  to  excuse  them  from  service  on  juries  for  murder  trials — 
if,  indeed,  they  are  not  fully  convinced  that  hanging  men  for  crime 
is  in  itself  a  crime. 

"In   the  most  primitive  state  of   sttcieiy   retaliation   was   the 


59 


method  of  punishing  offences,  and  this  was  inflicted  b}-  the  one 
who  suffered  the  injury  or  by  some  of  his  friends  the  punishment 
of  death,  according  to  Agassiz,  Darwin,  Humboldt,  and  other 
noted  scientists,  is  of  heathen  and  savage  origin  and  it  is  a  lament- 
able fact  that  Tennessee  still  adheres  to  this  barbarian  idea. 
Among  primitive  people  the  death  penalty  was  most  likely  in- 
flicted by  stoning,  as  stones  were  about  the  most  convenient  and 
effective  death  dealing  weapons  they  possessed.  After  stoning, 
came  burning,  and  it  was  long  years  after  before  an  instrument 
was  made  by  which  a  man  could  be  beheaded. 

"In  the  days  of  Blackstone.  there  were  in  England  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  offences  punishable  by  death,  and  at  one  time 
they  reached  two  hundred  and  twenty-three,  ^^'ithin  the  memory 
of  many  yet  living  it  was  the  law  of  England  to  hang  persons 
convicted  of  stealing  goods  to  the  value  of  five  shillings  from  a 
store,  warehouse  or  stable,  while  the  person  convicted  of  trea- 
son should  have  his  bowels  torn  out  and  burned  while  he  w^as 
yet  alive. 

"Imprisonment  for  debt  was  the  law  in  every  state  of  the 
union  e.xcept  five  as  late  as  1845.  A  case  in  the  Pennsylvania 
reports  is  cited  to  show  where  a  man  was  actually  imprisoned 
thirty  days  for  two  cents.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  speak  of  the 
nineteen  persons  who  were  executed  in  this  country  under  the 
law  because  they  had  gone  into  league  with  satan  and  practiced 
witchcraft.  The  early  history  of  Tennessee  relates  such  a  case 
occurring  in  this  state. 

"There  are  many  goofl  men  and  women  in  Tennessee  who  are 
constantly  agitating  the  work  of  reform  in  penal  jurisprudence 
and  great  progress  is  being  made  toward  humane,  sensible  and 
effective  means  of  dealing  with  those  who  are  in  danger  of  fall- 
ing into  the  criminal  class.  And  today  there  is  a  growing  senti- 
ment among  law-makers  to  hold  a  post-mortem  over  antiquated 
and  obsolete  methods  and  statutes.  Laws,  when  outgrown  by  civi- 
lization should  be  declared  legally  dead. 

"Without  any  apology  for  crime  or  unworthy  sympathy  for 
the  criminal,  it  can  be  said  that  justice  as  well  a's  mercy  should 
make  great  allowance  for  human  conduct.  Xo  human  mind  is 
able  to  decide  how  far  any  man  may  justly  be  held  for  his  acts. 
Every  man  who  has  been  immuned  in  prison  walls  or  suffered 

—  60  — 


death  at  the  hand  of  hi>  fellow  was  once  an  innocent,  helpless 
babe.  His  whole  life  may  have  been  one  continuous  stru.fjf^le 
against  disease,  against  poverty  and  tning  circumstances,  against 
temptation  thrown  in  his  way  by  society  and  perhaps  against  his 
own  natural  inclination  to  do  evil. 

"Reason  speaks  with  no  uncertain  voice  as  to  the  advisability 
of  abolishing  the  dealh  penalty  and  in  demanding  a  more  humane 
method  of  dealing  with  felons,  and  it  seems  to  me  there  can  be 
no  good  reason  why  every  man  should  not  oppose  the  cruel  law 
and  why  this  present  Legislature  should  not  erase  it  from  the 
statute  books  of  Tennessee.  Capital  punishment  is  a  disgrace  to 
our  age.  to  our  race,  to  our  civilization.  When  society  insists 
that  it  must  still  strangle  some  of  its  members  in  order  to  im- 
press others  with  the  value  of  life,  that  it  must  teach  peo])le  the 
sacredness  of  life  by  maintaining  a  school  of  murder,  it  con- 
fesses itself  a  lamentable  failure  and  a  jM-etentious  fraud.  I.  for 
one.  will  give  the  best  of  my  ability  to  aid  in  amending  our  pres- 
ent laws  on  the  death  penalt} ." — Xashznlle  Tennesscan  and  Ameri- 
can. 


DUKE   C.    BOWERS'   ARGUMENT   AGAINST    CAPITAL 
PUNISHMENT. 

The  first  case  of  nuirder  of  which  we  have  any  record  was 
that  of  Cain  killing  Abel.  In  this  instance  God  himself  was  the 
judge,  the  jury,  and  the  whole  court.  He  did  not  put  Cain  to 
death,  neither  would  he  allow  the  people  to  do  it. 

In  God's  commandment  to  man  he  said :  "Thou  shalt  not 
kill."  There  were  some  man-made  laws  after  this  that  stated : 
"An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  ' — likewise  a  life  for  a 
life;  but  these  same  Mosaic  laws  made  it  a  capital  offense  to  pick 
up  sticks  on  the  Sabbath. 

Christ  came  and  changed  the  old  law,  "an  eye  for  an  eye." 
declaring  that  vengeance  belonged  to  God.  He  also  taught  that 
it  was  better  to  do  good  than  evil  on  the  Sabbath.  The  difference 
in  the  teaching  of  Moses  and  Christ  was  that  Moses  shed  his  ene- 
mies' blood,  while  Christ  shed  His  own  blood  for  His  enemies. 

Imprisoning  a  person  and  trying  to  reform  him  exemplifies 
the  teachings  of  Christ  to  overcome  evil  with  good ;  while  taking 

—  61  — 


one's  life  is  wreaking  vengeance,  and  vengeance  is  the  Lord's  so 
saith  Jesus. 

Because  we  are  Southerners  is  no  reason  why  we  should  favor 
lynching  or  hanging.  Christianity  should  be  the  same  all  over  the 
countrv.  Life  belongs  to  God  in  the  South  as  well  as  in  the  North. 
"The  Lord  giveth  and  the  Lord  taketh  away'  should  apply  to  the 
whole  world. 

Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox  says,  "Thought  breeds  thought."  and 
this  power  of  suggestion  is  strongly  illustrated  in  a  story  ex- 
Warden  Rice  tells.  A  hanging  took  place  one  morning  at  the 
Xashville  penitentiary;  all  was  gloom  about  the  prison;  yet  that 
very  afternoon  a  prisoner  slipped  up  behind  a  fellow  prisoner  and 
killed  him. 

Who  is  able  to  say  whether  or  not  the  murder  committed  in 
the  morning  by  the  state  did  or  not  put  the  idea  into  the  man's 
head  to  commit  the  second  murder  ? 

Some  people  argue  that  if  capital  punishment  is  abolished 
crime  will  increase.  Brand  Whitlock  tells  in  his  lecture.  "Thou 
shalt  not  steal."  that  in  the  debate  of  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
bill  to  abolish  the  death  penalty  for  stealing  from  a  dwelling  to  the 
amoiuit  of  40  shillings,  Lord  Chief  Justice  Ellenborough  declared 
that  if  the  bill  passed,  the  property  of  every  householder  in  the 
kingdom  would  be  left  wholly  without  protection,  but  his  Lord- 
^■•hip's  fears  have  not  been  justified  in  England. 

The  experience  of  those  of  our  states  that  have  abolished 
capital  punishment  proves  that  if  anything  deters  capital  of- 
fenses, it  is  by  the  state  not  doing  what  it  says  its  citizens  shall 
not  do.  Burning  at  the  stake  did  not  prevent  the  spread  of  the 
Christian  religion.  If  putting  people  to  death  could  not  stop  a 
righteous  cause,  how^  can  you  expect  it  to  stop  an  unrighteous  one? 

From  a  statistical  standpoint,  as  gathered  from  the  United 
States  Mortality  Report  in  the  states  reporting  for  ten  years 
previous  to  1910,  those  in  which  capital  punishment  prevails  show 
one  and  one-half  times  as  many  homicides  per  100,000  population 
as  against  those  states  that  do  not  have  capital  punishment.  For 
1909,  the  last  year  reported,  those  states  that  have  capital  pun- 
ishment had  two  and  one-fourth  times  as  many  homicides  as  did 
the  states  in  which  capital  punishment  does  not  obtain. 

—  62—" 


Another,  and  perhaps  the  strongest  argument  against  cajjital 
punishment,  is  that  the  innocent  are  sometimes  hanged.  Follow- 
ing is  a  letter  I  received  a  few  days  ago  from  a  friend  : 

Columbus,  Ky.,  Feb.  7,  k^i.v 

Mr.  Duke  C.  Bonrrs,  Drcsdent,  Tenn. : 

Dear  Duke — I  will  try  and  state  a  case  to  you  that 
Mr.  Otis  Peehles  told  me  happened  in  Milburn  some 
years  ago.  Two  negroes  by  the  name  of  Duvall  and 
Clapp  were  arrested  for  rape  on  a  white  woman  by  the 
name  of  Warden.  She  could  not  state  whether  her 
assailants  were  white  or  black.  They  tried,  convicted 
and  hanged  the  two  negroes  at  Blandville,  Ky.,  Their 
last  words  were  that  they  were  innocent  of  the  crime. 
Some  years  later  a  white  man  by  the  name  of  Gossop 
moved  to  .Vrkansas  from  Milburn,  and  shortly  after- 
wards took  sick,  and  on  his  deathbed  made  confession 
to  the  crime.  But  two  innocent  lives'  had  gone  to  meet 
their  Maker. 

Your  friend, 

Harry  Pearson. 

Now,  if  life  imprisonment  had  been  the  maximum  punish- 
ment in  the  above  case,  then  these  two  men  could  have  been  given 
their  liberty  and  the  state  would  not  bear  the  stain  of  having  mur- 
dered two  innocent  men.  Isn't  it  better  that  ninety-nine  gnihy 
ones'  lives  should  be  saved  than  for  one  innocent  life  to  be  taken? 

Rev.  J.  O.  McClurkan  of  this  city  told  me  that  he  had  talked 
with  nearly  every  person  that  has  been  hanged  here  in  the  past 
fifteen  years,  and  that  according  to  his  judgment,  there  were  only 
about  three  or  four  cases  out  of  the  whole  bunch  in  which  there 
were  no  mitigating  circumstances. 

Some  people  are  against  capital  punishment  because  of  the 
pardoning  power  resting  in  the  (k)vernor's  hand.  Warden  Rim- 
mer  of  the  state  penitentiary  at  Nashville  wrote  me  that  within 
the  past  ten  years  151  life  prisoners  have  been  received;  of  this 
number  only  seven  have  been  pardonerl  and  ten  commuted,  leav- 
ing 88  4-5  per  cent  to  serve  out  their  time. 

Anyone  familiar  with  the  courts  of  our  state  knows  that  a 
great  number  of  men  who  would  make  good  jurors  are  disquali- 

—  63  — 


ficd  from  service  on  account  of  their  conviction  on  the  subject  of 
capital  punishment.  To  aboHsh  the  death  penahy  would,  to  my 
mind,  give  the  speedier  convictions,  save  money  for  the  state, 
be  more  in  keeping  with  the  progressive  spirit  of  this  era.  and  be 
the  best  advertisement  the  State  of  Tennessee  could  procure. 

There  are  people  in  the  North  who  think  that  we  of  the  South 
are  a  lot  of  hot-heads,  blood-thirsty  murderers.  Let  us  abolish 
capital  punishment  and  show  these  people  that  they  are  mistaken. 
It  will  be  the  biggest  boost  Tennessee  ever  had.  I  believe  it  will 
help  to  bring  capital  and  investors  into  our  midst.  Let's  quit  em- 
ploying a  man  to  hang  people — rather  let  us  give  them  to  under- 
stand that  we  want  them  to  take  a  man  and  reform  him. 

Believing  that  my  judgment  is  right  in  this  matter,  I  appeal 
to  you  to  rally  to  the  support  of  Mr.  Gilbert  and  his  bill  to  abolish 
capital  punishment  in  Tennessee. 

Duke  C.  Bowers. 


Editor  The  News  Scimitar  : 

The  campaign  being  waged  before  the  Tennessee  Legislature 
by  Mr.  Bowers,  of  Memphis,  and  others,  has  aroused  much  in- 
terest throughout  the  state  and  elsewhere.  In  nearly  every  news- 
paper in  Tennessee  communications  are  printed  as  often  as  the 
papers  themselves  appear.  All  of  which  is  well.  So  far  as  the 
writer  of  this  is  concerned,  he  has  never  cared  to  go  deeper  in 
his  antagonism  to  capital  punishment  than  the  conviction  long 
held  that  no  community  of  men  has  a  right  to  go  further  than  an 
individual,  and  that  neither  community  nor  individual  has  a  right 
to  take  from  a  man  that  which  God  gave  him,  and  which  he  is 
entitled  to  retain  until  God's  finger  of  finality  touches  him  and 
he  gives  it  back. 

Nearly  two  thousand  years  ago  the  Old  Teatament  became  a 
back  number,  an  interesting  but  obsolete  reminder  of  an  era 
when  men  were  in  the  formative  state,  and  needed  the  supreme 
penalty  for  mundane  misdeeds.  Since  that  time  there  has  come 
the  New  Testament,  God's  latest  pronouncement,  making  love 
and  mercy  the  basis  of  men's  deeds.  We  have  long  been  growing 
away  from  capital  punishment. 

No  more  than  four  generations  ago,  in  England,  the  world's 
—  64  — 


most  progressive  and  advanced  nation,  there  were  a  hundred  or 
more  crimes  which  called  by  laws  for  the  death  penalty.  These 
have  one  by  one  been  changed,  until  today  only  murder  and  trea- 
son, save  perhaps  in  war  times,  are  punishable  by  death.  In 
many  other  countries,  even  the  murder  of  a  sovereign  calls 
for  nothing  severer  than  life  imprisonment.  A  few  years  ago 
in  our  Western  States,  when  Isolated  communities  were  their 
own  law-makers,  horse  and  cattle  thieves  always  left  the  country 
by  the  noose  route.  Certain  states  have  recently  done  what  Ten- 
nessee is  considering,  abolished  the  death  penalty  entirely.  Sta- 
tistics show  that  in  those  states  the  crime  of  murder  has  dimin- 
ished instead  of  increased.  The  theory  is  that  the  convicted 
criminal  has  the  chance  of  being  prepared  for  eternity.  It  also 
secures  to  the  convicted  one  the  privilege  of  a  restoration  to 
liberty  in  the  event  that  exculpatory  evidence  later  comes  to  light. 
In  50  per  cent  at  least  of  murder  convictions  there  is  the  possi- 
bility of  juries'  errors,  either  as  to  the  guilt  at  all  of  the  defend- 
ant, or  as  to  the  actual  degree  of  his  guilt.  This  percentage  of 
uncertainty  is  itself  sufficient  to  relegate  the  custom,  were  that 
the  only  argument  against  it. 

It  is  no  surprise  to  find  a  majority  of  lawyers  against  Air. 
Bowers  in  his  fight.  Lawyers,  and  there's  a  pity  to  it,  become, 
from  their  earliest  legal  training,  inoculated  wath  the  virus  of 
precedents  and  custom.  I  call  it  virus  because  it  has  been  a 
bane  to  society.  There  is  as  much  wrong  done  society  and  the 
law  by  the  antiquated  and  obstinate  adherence  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession to  precedents  and  procedures  as  by  any  one  class  of 
criminals  in  the  world.  You  may  shake  up  the  profession,  but 
you  can't  wake  it  up.  It's  for  the  people,  with  visions  unre- 
strained and  minds  free,  to  do  the  work  of  radicalism  in  law- 
making. 

I  don't  know  whether  the  present  Legislature  will  abolish 
capital  punishment  or  not.  ]  do  know  that  some  future  Legis- 
lature will,  if  this  one  fails.     And  it  will  be  for  two  reasons: 

First,  that  it  is  not  necessary  as  a  preventive  of  murder ;  and. 
Second,  because  it  is  an  unholy  and  a  barbarous  crime  in 
itself.  Walter  Cain. 

Gen.  N.  AI.  Curtis,  in  his  speech  before  Congress  to  abolish 
the  death  penalty,  among  other  things,  said :     "Those  who  claim 

—  65  — 


it  to  be  our  duty  to  continue  the  law  of  past  ages  are  of  the 
same  class  of  men  Sir  Thomas  More  spoke  of  as  those  who 
thought  it  a  moral  sin  to  be  wiser  than  their  grandfathers." 
They  have  lived  in  every  age.  valiant  defendants  of  established 
customs  and  laws.  They  suppressed  Galileo  Galilei,  and  sent 
him  to  a  dungeon,  'guilty  of  having  seen  the  earth  revolve  around 
the  sun.'  " 


AGAINST  DEATH  PENALTY. 


Rev.   Green   P.  Jackson   Op|X)ses  Capital    Punishment. 

"Capital  punishment  should  never  have  been  u-ed  before  the 
coming  of  Christ,  and  it  is  an  outrage  to  civilization  that  it  has 
been  used  since  then."  said  Rev.  Green  P.  Jackson,  a  Methodist 
minister,  who  has  been  preaching  in  Middle  Tennessee  for  fifty- 
five  years,  while  talking  with  a  reporter  for  The  Democrat 
yesterday. 

"Man  has  no  right  to  take  what  he  has  not  given — man  has  no 
right  to  say  to  this  man,  'Thou  shalt  die,'  when  God  himself  has 
ordained,  'Thou  shalt  not  kill.' 

'When  the  Christ  of  Galilee  came  to  earth  it  was  to  preach 
the  kingdom  of  God  upon  earth — and  it  was  his  wish  that  man 
should  not  slay  his  fellow-man. 

"The  Son  of  God  suflfered  the  excruciating  tortures  of  capital 
punishment.  Is  it  not  enough  that  the  Son  of  Man  was  put  to 
death?  Why  should  we  wish  U>  kill  men  in  this  day  of  enlight- 
ened civilization? 

"It  is  my  hope  and  prayer  that  the  bill  against  capital  ]jun- 
ishment  will  be  passed  in  this  session  of  the  I.egislature." 

Yesterday  Mr.  Jackson  called  upon  Duke  C.  liowers,  of 
Memphis,  who  is  here  to  trv  to  get  the  bill  passed,  and  handed 
Mr.  liowers  a  petition  signed  by  some  of  the  most  prominent  men 
of  the  city  against  capital  punishment. — The  Nashville  Democrat. 


AliOLISH  BARBARISM,  SAVS  RABBI  LKWINTHAL. 

"The  bill  for  repealing  capital  punishment  in  Tennessee  may 
pass  or  may  not,  but  it  is  a  good  sign  of  the  progress  of  humanity, 

—  66  — 


justice  and  civilization.  This  strujjgle  is  not  merely  a  passing 
sensation — it  has  been  going  on  for  a  century,  and  even  if  the 
bill  is  defeated,  the  agitation  will  be  resumed."  said  Rabbi  l.ew- 
inthal  of  this  city  in  a  masterful  sermon  ag^ainst  capital  punish- 
ment a  day  ago. 

"To  the  credit  of  the  human  race  it  must  be  said  that  in  every 
generation  and  every  clime  people  were  anxious  to  practice  jus- 
tice. Their  will  was  good  and  their  heart  craved  justice,  but 
the  trouble  was  they  were  not  advanced  enough  intellectually  to 
know  what  justice  was.  They  believed  they  were  practicing 
justice,  but  in  fact  they  were  practicing  barbarism.  In  our  days 
we  know  better:  therefore,  let  us  drop  all  prejudices  and  refomi 
our  penal  codes. 

"Let  us  alK^lish  capital  pimishment.  Just  alx^lish  it.  and  the 
people  of  Tennessee  will  be  satisfied.  They  will  be  satisfied  be- 
cause humanity  demands  it.  justice  demands  it.  experience  de- 
mands it,  and  civilization  demands  it.  Away  with  capital  punish- 
ment, away  with  it  now,  and  away  with  it  forever." — 77;c  Xash- 
z'illc  Democrat. 


lUSIXESS    Ml-.X    FAVOR  AROLITIOX   OF   DEATH 
PENALTY. 

I'nanimous  endorsement  was  given  by  the  members  of  the 
Nashville  Business  Mens  Association,  at  the  regular  meeting 
Monday  night,  of  the  campaign  which  is  being  waged  before  the 
Legislature  for  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment.  IL  \V.  Lewis. 
M.  S.  Ross  and  other  members  of  the  association  spoke  in  reganl 
to  the  bill  i^^nding  before  the  Legislature,  and  told  of  the  gixul 
effects  obtainetl  where  capital  inmishment  has  been  abolished. — 
Xasln'illr  7V»/»t\\\\«'a;j  and  .hucricaii. 


EDITORLXL   FROM   THE  LEXINGTON  PROGRESS. 

Duke  C.  Howers.  who  has  residence  in  the  town  of  IVesden 
since  retirement  from  active  and  personal  management  of  the 
chain  of  groceries  he  established  and  conducted  for  several  years 
with  signal  success  in  the  city  of  Memphis,  has  been  in  Xashville 
since  the  convention  of  the  Fifty-eighth  General  .\ssenibly  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  pushing  to  passage  if  possible  a  bill  abolishing 
the  death  }>enalty  anil  substituting  therefor  life  imprisonment. 

—  67  — 


Mr.  Bowers,  prompted  by  humanily  alone,  is  bearing;  the 
whole  expense  of  this  work  and  says  that  if  he  can  be  successful 
in  the  Tennessee  Legislature  he  is  s2:oing  to  carry  the  fight  before 
the  legislative  bodies  of  all  the  states  in  the  Union. 

He  is  conducting  a  vigorous,  persistent  and  intelligent  cam- 
paign and  that  his  cause  is  gaining  ground  is  known  to  all  who 
know  the  facts  as  they  existed  before  the  convention  of  the 
Legislature  and  at  present. 

Air.  Bowers  shows  by  statistics  that  the  number  of  homicides 
per  year  is  greatest  in  the  states  in  which  the  death  penalty  is 
inflicted,  but  he  thinks  his  greatest  argument  was  made  by  Judge 
Greer,  who  spoke  before  the  legislative  committee,  depicted  a 
legal  hanging  and  at  the  close  asked  this  question  :  "(Gentlemen 
of  the  committee,  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth  could  have  looked  down 
on  that  scene  and  spoken  do  you  think  he  would  have  said,  'Well 
done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant?'"  Air.  Bowers  says  that 
if  his  bill  passes  and  is  amended  by  the  exception  of  any  crime, 
it  will  be  like  a  fellow  saying,  "Yes,  I  will  get  religion — with  the 
sole  exception  that  I  will  keep  on  stealing."  Air.  Bowers  has 
the  help  of  some  of  the  best  members  of  the  Legislature  and  still 
others  suggest  that  his  plan  in  the  punishment  of  criminals 
might  safely  be  given  a  trial. 


\IGOROUS  FIGHT  AGAINST  CAPITAL  PUNTSHAIENT. 

An  effort  is  being  made  to  abolish  capital  punishment  in  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  which  has  brought  out  very  conspicuously 
that  there  is  a  large  element  of  people  who  oppose  the  taking  of 
human  life  for  any  reason  whatever,  those  holding  to  this  view 
contending  that  the  individual  crime  of  shedding  blood  does  not 
justify  the  shedding  of  blood  on  the  part  of  the  State  as  an  ex- 
piation. They  contend  that  nothing  should  be  taken  from  a 
human  being  that  cannot  be  restored ;  that  only  the  Giver  of 
Life  has  the  right  to  take  the  life  of  a  human  being. 

The  discussion  of  this  question  has  developed  a  lofty  senti- 
ment among  the  peoi:)le.  It  has  shown  that  in  their  sober  mo- 
ments and  mature  judgment  they  look  with  horror  on  the  legally 
sanctioned  i)ractice  of  killing  those  who  kill. 

It  is  commendable  in  those   who  are  making  this  light    for 

—  68  — 


the  abolishment  of  capital  punishment  that  their  contention  is 
that  the  real  and  only  object  of  the  law  in  punishing^  criminals  is 
to  prevent  a  repetition  of  of  their  crime,  and  to  hold  out  the 
punishment  of  them  as  object  lessons  to  deter  others  from  com- 
mitting similar  crimes. 

These  zealous  and  active  opponents  of  capital  punishment 
take  the  position  that  confinement  for  life,  without  the  hope  of 
j)ardon  or  esca])e.  would  be  just  as  effective  a  deterrent  to  crime 
as  the  death  penalty.  They  contend  that  it  is  the  certainty  and 
not  the  severity  of  punishment  that  is  effective  in  preventing 
crime,  and  that  if  this  be  true  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  do 
away  with  the  gallows  altogether,  and  in  its  stead  provide  a  mode 
of  punishment  for  atrocious  crimes  that  would  be  free  of  the 
horrors  of  the  gibbet. 

Though  capital  punishment  has  the  sanction  of  the  ages,  there 
is  much  to  be  said  against  it.  Divested  of  all  the  moods  and 
pass'ons  that  inflame  us  in  the  presence  of  an  atrocious  crime,  we 
can  with,  good  reason  argue  the  wrong  of  legal  death  and  show 
that  solitary  confinement  for  life  would  serve  the  same  end  in 
giving  protection  to  society,  but  there  is  a  spirit  of  resentment 
and  a  passion  for  revenge,  which,  if  aroused,  leads  us  to  invoke 
the  ^Fo^aic  law  of  "an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth." 

Whatever  policy,  with  respect  to  the  solution  of  this  problem, 
may  be  determined  on  as  wise  and  expedient  for  the  Legislature 
to  follow,  we  feel  sure  the  discussion  of  the  question  which  has 
been  engaged  in  by  a  large  number  of  people  will  have  good  re- 
sults, for  it  has  brought  out  the  finest  sentiments  of  the  people, 
showing  that  they  not  only  want  to  be  just,  but  merciful  as  well, 
and  that  if  they  can  be  l)oth  just  and  merciful  in  the  abolishment 
of  the  death  penalty  they  will  at  least  have  soothed  fheir  own 
consciences  in  deferring  the  taking  of  human  life  to  a  higher 
])ower  than  that  which  has  been  created  at  the  hands  of  man. — 
.Xashfillc  Tcnncsscan  and  American. 


OPPOSES  CAPIT.AL  PTXISHMEXT. 

Jiditor  Tcnncsscan  and  American: 

Allow  me  to  say.  T  heartily  approve  of  your  stand  against 
capital  punishment..    Of  course.  T  am  not  surprised  to  find  you 

—  69  — 


on  this  side,  as  you  have  always  been  for  the  right  and  against 
the  wrong. 

Since  I  commenced  to  think  about  it  I  have  been  opposed  to 
capital  punishment  because,  first,  it  is  not  the  best  correction  of 
crime ;  second,  it  appears  to  me  a  savage  practice — a  relic  of 
savagery ;  third,  shall  the  state  commit  cold-blooded  murder  to 
offset  the  same  crime  committed  by  the  individual?  The  latter 
commits  his  crime  for  some  real  or  imaginary  grievance ;  the 
state  does  it  in  the  nanie  of  civilized  law  and  decency ;  fourth, 
as  I  see  it,  there  is  nothing  in  Christ's  teachings  that  sanctions 
capital  punishment. 

His  prominent  characteristic  was  that  ''He  did  not  resent 
evil,"  and  His  example  is  to  be  taken  as  final. 

I  am  praying  that  this  Legislature' of  Tennessee  will  do  itself 
the  honor  to  pass  a  bill  abolishing  capital  punishment. 

Martin,  Tenn.  Rev.  J-  J-  Thomas. 


OPPOSES  THE  DEATH  PENALTY. 

Editor  Tennessean  and  American: 

As  a  mother  and  one  who  would  be  rejoiced  to  see  capital 
punishment  done  away  with,  let  me  say  through  your  columns 
that  I  heartily  endorse  what  Mr.  Duke  C.  Bowers  and  Rev.  ].  J. 
Thomas  had  to  say  on  the  subject. 

As  a  people  who  believe  in  the  religion  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  let  us  unite  in  one  strong  battle  array  against  capital 
punishment.  Have  the  lawmakers  of  a  great  commonwealth 
the  right  to  plunge  immortal  souls  into  hell — even  if  under 
provocation  one  had  committed  murder?  Give  time  for  repent- 
ance. 

David,  the  man  after  God's  own  heart,  committed  murder, 
and  yet,  after  all,  was  restored  in  His  sight.  And  then  in  the 
name  of  her,  who  in  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  bore  the 
son  her  heart  cherished  so  dearly,  and  whose  love  can  penetrate 
prison  walls,  let  our  legislators  do  away  with  capital  punishment. 

"Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?"  Yes,  and  as  you  seldom  hear 
of  the  rich,  or  well-to-do  being  electrocuted,  and  as  justice  sel- 

—  70  — 


clom  reaches  the  influential;  hut  as  the  weak  and  erring-,  un- 
tutored and  unprotected,  are  often  the  victims  of  injustice,  we 
pray  that  imprisonment,  say  without  the  chance  of  pardon,  be 
substituted  for  death  penaUy.  Life  is  sweet  to  even  the  lower 
animals.  And  how  much  more  precious  must  be  the  life  even  of 
one  imprisoned  for  a  life  sentence?  There  is  chance  of  and  op- 
portunity for  repentance.  Mrs.  Rodert  E.  Link. 
Cottonwood,  Tcnn. 


Tllh:  JI'DICIARV  eO.M.MlTTEh:  HEARINGS. 

Judge  Greer,  of  Memphis,  opened  for  the  Gilbert  bill,  the 
first  considered.  "I  state  on  the  threshold,"  he  said,  "that  a 
private  citizen  of  the  State  has  been  the  most  active  recent  mover 
in  this  matter.  I  have  been  working  on  this  matter  for  thirty 
years.  He  has  done  more  in  thirty  days  to  get  it  before  the 
Legislature.  I  wish,  therefore,  to  ask  Mr.  Duke  C.  Bowers  to 
either  read  or  make  a  statement  of  the  faith  that  has  moved 
him  in  this  humane  work." 

bower's  suggestion. 
Mr.  Bowers  suggested  that  Judge  Greer  be  heard,  and  that 
the  committee  then  postpone  the  hearing  to  Tuesday,  when  there 
would  be  more  time  and  other  speakers  to  present  the  matter. 
Mr.  Bowers  referred  in  this  to  K.  T.  McConnico,  of  Xashville, 
who  sat  beside  him. 

.Mr.  liowers'  suggestion  was  followed  by  judge  (ircer,  who 
said  in  part:  "T  have  come  away  from  the  beside  of  a  sick  wife, 
so  deeply  am  I  interested  in  this  matter.  It  is  therefore  im- 
perative that  I  must,  if  1  am  to  speak  at  all,  speak  to  you  now. 

"I  have  been  so  immensely  gratified  after  all  the  weary  years 
of  waiting  at  the  assurance  that  there  is  a  probability  of  this 
measure,  for  which  I  longed  since  my  childish  eyes  looked  for 
the  first  and  only  time  on  the  judicial  murder  of  a  fellow-man. 
becoming  a  law^ 

"It  has  been  the  longing  that  has  caused  me  to  send  to  each 
Legislature  a  bill  to  do  away  with  this  relic  of  barbarism.  I 
have  been  turned  down  and  turned  down,  but  I  have  seen  the 
thing  grow  to  a  point  where  there  is  a  proba])ility  of  passage. 

—  71  — 


"I  am  not  going  to  put  my  reasons  for  this  step  as  mere  sen- 
timental reasons.  A  little  reflection  will  show  that  the  object  of 
punishment  is  twofold,  with  a  third  and  subsidiary  consideration. 
First,  there  is  the  reason  of  restraint,  to  protect  society  from  the 
man  who  has  outraged  it.  The  second  is  to  deter  crime  by  the 
example  of  the  punishment.  The  third  has  come  of  late  years, 
to  reform  the  criminal  and  make  him  go  forth  a  better  man. 

"There  are  some,  indeed,  who  go  back  to  the  old  law  of 
vengeance,  or  an  eye  for  an  eye,  but  every  thinking  man  knows 
that  punishment  can  have  but  two  reasons,  protection  by  re- 
straint and  prevention  by  deterrents. 

"If  the  killing  of  a  man  by  law  served  either  of  these  pur- 
poses, I  would  say  let  them  die.  But  if  the  figures  show,  as 
they  incontrovertibly  do,  that  wherever  that  form  of  punishment 
has  been  abolished  and  the  experiment  of  milder  punishment  has 
been  tried,  the  percentage  of  homicides  has  decreased,  the  per- 
centage of  convictions  increased.  If  this  is  true,  gentlemen,  that 
the  aim  of  punishment  is  better  subserved  by  the  milder  form,  is 
there  any  shred  of  excuse  for  shedding  human  blood? 

Tf  this  is  not  true,  why  have  vou  ]>rohibited  public  execu- 
tions? If  you  wanted  to  deter  by  brutality  you  would  see  that 
all  saw  the  executions.  If  it  is  right  to  take  life,  always  there 
would  be  volunteers  to  cut  the  trap  door  from  under  criminals. 
Can  you  imagine  such  a  thing? 

"You  have  no  public  execution  because  oi  the  norrf:>r  of  it 
and  because  of  the  brutalization  of  other  men  witnessing  it.  If 
you  can  deter  without  shedding  blood,  why  shed  it? 

"I  can  tell  you  something  of  the  horrors  of  it.  I  was  only 
a  boy.  I  went  to  the  jail  and  saw  a  man  brought  from  ihe  jail 
in  his  shroud ;  saw  him  sit  on  his  cofiin  in  a  wagon  and  ride  a 
mile  through  a  glorious  day  to  the  place  of  execution. 

"With  bound  arms,  he  half  staggered  up  to  the  scaiTold.  The 
black  cap  was  put  on.  The  legs  were  bound.  The  trap  dropjied, 
and  the  figure  dangled  in  space,  arms  and  legs  struggling  to  rise. 
Can  you  imagine  Jesus  of  Nazareth  saying  to  )^ou  and  to  me, 
to  the  instruments  of  the  law  about  that  dangling  fellow,  'Well 
done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant!'" — Xashz'illc  Tcnncsscan 
cnuj  American. 

—  72  — 


ABOLISH  PENALTY  OF  DKATII. 

15y  a  vote  of  8  to  3  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  House 
^^onday  afternoon  recommended  for  passage  the  Gilbert  bill. 
House  bill  Xo.  235,  abolishing-  the  death  penalty  for  all  crimes 
in  Tennessee.  This  action  was  taken  following  a  short  address 
by  Duke  C.  Bowers  and  a  powerful  presentation  of  the  objections 
to  capital  punishment  by  K.  T.  McConnico.  of  the  .\ashville  bar. 
and  was  taken  on  motion  of  Lee  \\'inchester.  of  Shelby,  who 
himself  had  a  bill  before  the  House,  leaving  the  death  penalty  in 
effect  for  rape.  Speeches  against  the  bill  were  made  by  Repre- 
sentatives Chamlee.  Creswell  and  I'n'ant.  who  were  the  onlv 
members  of  the  committee  opposing  it. 

-Mr.  McConn:co's  argument,  which  was  so  remarkable  that 
it  actually  convinced  men  who  had  made  up  their  minds  the  other 
way,  was  devoted  almost  entirely  to  the  legal  aspects  of  the 
case. 

He  based  much  of  it  upon  reported  cases  in  which  actual 
confessions  had  revealed,  after  men  had  been  executed  upon  cir- 
cumstantial evidence,  that  they  were  innocent.  He  had  with  him 
a  volume  of  550  pages  filled  with  such  cases,  and  while  he  re- 
ferred to  only  a  few  of  them,  the  presence  of  such  a  volume, 
which  only  covered  the  cases  up  to  T()oi.  was  in  itself  a  tre- 
mendous argument  for  the  passage  of  the  bill. 

"The  main  objection  to  capital  punishment  from  the  lawyers' 
standpoint  is  the  liability  of  judicial  murder,  of  mistaken  execu- 
tion through  the  honest  mistake  of  the  courts  and  juries.  This 
book  here  is  the  graveyard  of  only  those  cases  we  know  about. 
How  many  others  there  are  which  have  never  come  to  light  no 
man  may  say." 

The  most  |;owertul  case  cited  by  Mr.  McL'onnico  was  the 
l^urand  case,  from  California.  Uurand.  ablv  defended  by  Del- 
phine  M.  Delmas.  who  afterward  defended  Harry  K.  Thaw,  was 
convicted  of  the  murder  of  his  sweetheart  in  the  tower  of  a 
church  on  what  appeared,  so  far  as  human  eye  could  tell,  to  be 
an  absolutely  perfect  and  unbreakable  case  of  circumstantial  evi- 
dence, and  executed.  One  year  later  the  pastor  of  the  church 
in  which  the  murder  occurred  confessed  the  murder,  when  it 
was  too  late. 

—  73  — 


"And  vet."  said  Mr.  McConnico,  "we  must  use  circumstantial 
evidence  in  criminal  cases.  Were  it  otherwise,  all  a  man  would 
have  to  do  to  go  free  would  be  to  get  his  victim  off  by  himself." 

"Fifty  per  cent  of  the  acquittals  in  homicide  cases  are  due  to 
capital  punishment.  I  am  speaking  now  from  my  experience  in 
defending  half  a  hundred  homicide  cases.  I  know  that  in  cases 
where  the  lawyer  knows  there  will  be  no  hanging,  he  lays  his 
plans  from  the  beginning  and  fights  to  convince  the  jury  that  the 
case  is  'either  hanging  or  nothing.'  The  jury  naturally  revolts 
at  hanging  the  man,  and  acquittal  results.  I  have  profited  by  that 
myself. 

IN    TENNESSEE. 

"Capital  punishment  increases  crime,  for  the  state  sets  the 
example  of  taking  life.  Not  to  go  so  far  from  home  or  so  far 
back  as  the  days  in  England  when  men  were  hanged  for  300 
crimes,  in  the  State  of  Tennessee,  in  1858.  men  were  still  hanged 
for  burglary,  robbery  and  arson.  Do  we  have  more  of  those 
crimes  now  that  capital  punishment  for  them  is  done  away  with  ?" 

Mr.  McConnico  took  up  the  arguments  of  those  who  base 
their  opposition  to  the  bill  on  the  pardoning  power  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. One  class,  he  pointed  out,  objected  to  it  because  the  Gov- 
ernor could,  through  the  exercise  of  the  pardoning  power,  correct 
errors  of  the  courts,  while  the  other  objected  on  the  ground  that 
the  Governor  would  have  power  to  overturn  the  decrees  of  the 
court.  Mr.  McConnico  criticised  both  views,  citing  law  and  ex- 
perience-on  his  side. 

Tn  regard  to  mob  law,  he  pointed  out  tliat  hanging  does  not 
prevent  the  horrible  crime  for  which  lynching  is  committed  in 
the  South,  but  that  capital  punishment  really  increases  lynching 
by  furnishing  an  excuse  for  it.  on  the  ground  that  the  state 
would  take  life.  "We  have  all  the  lynchings  that  we  can  have 
or  are  going  to  have  as  it  is,"  he  added. 

Two  impressive  facts  were  brought  out  in  Mr.  Bowers' 
speech  for  the  bill,  that  homicide  in  six  states  which  have  abol- 
ished capital  punishment  is  only  48  ])er  cent  what  it  is  in  the  cap- 
ital ])unishment  states,  and  that  back  in  England  two  such  great 
authorities  as  Lord  Elgin  and  Lord  Ellenborough  predicted  ruin 
and  increase  of  crime  if  the  death  penalty  was  removed  from  petit 
larceny. 

—  74  — 


CHANGRD    HIS   VIEWS. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  McConnico's  speech  Mr.  Winchester,  ex- 
pressing^ his  conversion  and  conviction,  moved  the  ])assajje  of 
Mr.  Gilbert's  bill.  Other  members  of  the  committee  speaking  for 
the  bill  were  Mr.  Gilbert  and  .Albert  E.  Hill,  who  stated  that 
years  ago  he  had  three  times  voted  against  a  similar  bill,  but 
that  he  now  realized  that  he  had  made  a  mistake  in  so  doing. 

Mr.  Chamlee  and  .Mr.  IJryant  o])iK)sed  the  bill,  particularly  as 
it  removed  the  death  penaltv  for  rape,  and  Mr.  Creswell  oj^posed 
it  on  the  ground  that  it  removed  the  ])rotection  from  crimes  of 
violence.  He  cited  the  whitecappers  of  Sevier  County,  who.  he 
declared,  had  been  checked  only  by  the  execution  of  two  men. 
Mr.  Fuller  somewhat  took  issue  with  Mr.  Creswell  on  this  point, 
maintaining  that  the  man  really  responsible  was  never  punished. 

The  final  vote  of  the  committee  follows: 

For  the  bill — Bejach,  Collier  of  Sumner,  Fuller,  .\bernathy, 
Neely.  Taylor  of  Jefferson,  W'illiamson.  Winchester. 

Against  the  bill — Creswell,  Chamlee,  Bryant. — Xashville  Ten- 
nesscan  and  .luicrican. 


EX-WARDFX  SAYS  "D(  )X"T  HAXc;." 

"Relative  to  the  bill  now  j^ending  before  the  Legislature  to 
abolish  capital  punishment  for  any  crime  I  wish  to  say  that  I 
heartily  endorse  it  and  think  the  stand  and  work  of  C.  C.  Gil- 
bert, Duke  C.  Bowers  and  others  in  endeavoring  to  effect  the 
abolition  of  capital  punishment  is  highly  commendable,"  said  B. 
M.  Rice,  former  Warden  at  the  main  state  ])rison,  talking  with 
a  reporter  for  The  Democrat.  ".After  having  been  connected 
with  the  state  penitentiary  for  twenty  years,  I  feel  fully  war- 
ranted from  this  long  experience  and  close  touch  with  the  crim- 
inal class  that  any  man  of  whatever  vicious  or  criminal  disjxisi- 
tion  can  be  cured  under  the  rigid  discipline  observed  by  the 
oflficers  of  the  state.  The  rules  imposed  upon  prisoners  school 
them  to  such  obedience  that  their  conduct  necessarily  becomes 
changed  from  their  former  life.  The  mind  meets  these  conditions 
and  accordinglv  the  influence  of  such  environments  changes  the 
criminal  disposition. 

"Under  the  merit   svstem  of  commuiation  of   sentence  over 

—  75  — 


seventy-five  per  cent  earn  this  and  not  one  per  cent  of  the  remain- 
ing twenty-five  per  cent  are  convicted  of  oflfenses  of  such  nature 
that  could  have  resulted  in  capital  punishment — that  is,  they  are 
not  capital  crimes.  The  twenty-five  per  cent  spoken  of  as  not 
meriting  commutation  are,  as  a  rule,  convicted  of  minor  oflfenses. 

"The  record  also  shows  that  after  a  convict  has  served  ten 
or  twenty  years  and  has  been  released,  he  becomes  a  law-abiding 
citizen,  as  a  result  of  the  rigid  discipline  imposed  while  in  prison. 
The  practice  of  capital  punishment  was  not  inaugurated  under 
the  old  barbaric  teaching  of  an  eye  for  an  eye,  but  solely  as  a  pro- 
tection to  society.  It  is  not  to  punish  the  oflfender.  No  man 
wants  the  blood  of  his  fellow-man  on  his  hands,  nor  should  I 
think  he  would  want  it  on  the  hands  of  his  State,  of  which  he  is  a 
citizen. 

"The  responsibility  of  the  State  is  merel_\-  the  responsibility  of 
its  citizens.    Are  you  willing  to  assume  this  responsibility? 

"Capital  punishment  is  not  a  deterrent  to  crime.  I  have  known 
of  murder  being  committed  almost  under  the  shadow  of  the  gal- 
lows. The  rapist  never  reaches  the  hand  of  the  law.  The  assassin 
who  lies  in  wait  to  kill  reasons  at  the  same  time  that  this  con- 
cealment will  avoid  the  discovery  of  his  connection  with  the 
crime.  If  capital  punishment  does  not  deter  further  crimes  and  is 
not  a  protection  to  society  in  this  respect,  then  confinement  for 
life  in  prison  meets  every  demand  of  a  Christian  world." — Nash- 
ville Democrat. 

HITS  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 
'T  am  heartily  opposed  to  capital  punishment,"  said  Dean  A. 
B.  Martin  of  the  Cumberland  Law  School,  talking  with  a  reporter 
for  The  Democrat. 

"It  does  not  carry  out  the  true  aims  of  justice — the  deterring 
of  the  crime.  Crime,  to  a  large  degree,  is  a  disease,  and  should 
be  treated  as  such.  When  capital  punishment  takes  place  there  is 
no  opportunity  for  reformation. 

"I  am  further  opposed  to  capital  punishment  because  man  is 
not  infallible.  Mistakes  are  occasionally  made,  which,  under  the 
present  system,  cannot  be  rectified. 

"Finally,  I  am  opposed  to  capital  punishment  because  no  man 
has  a  right  to  take  what  he  did  not  give." — Xaslwillc  Democrat. 

—  76  — 


CAPITAL  PL'XISHMEXT. 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Banner : 

How  a  Christian  minister,  who  has  spent  his  hfe  attem])tinj? 
to  preach  Christianity,  can  favor  capital  puni'^hment  is  a  mystery 
to  me.  To  cut  the  murderer  off,  behevins^  that  he  is  doomed 
to  eternal  punishment,  seems  to  be  committing-  the  same  crime 
that  the  murderer  did,  and  i)erhaps  he  did  it  in  the  heat  of  pas- 
sion, while  state  does  it  deliberately. 

When  Cain  slew  Abel.  G(jd  was  the  only  arbiter  between  men. 
He  was  both  the  political  and  moral  governor  of  men.  Did  God 
kill  Cain?  No;  he  gave  him  a  life  sentence.  .\  fugitive  and 
a  vagabond  shalt  thou  be.  and  when  thou  tillest  the  earth  it 
shall  not  yield  her  strength,  and  added,  in  order  to  prevent  an- 
other murder,  whosoever  slayeth  Cain  vengeance  shall  be  taken 
on  him  seven-fold.  Lamech  also,  one  of  Cain's  descendants, 
said  to  his  wives :  I  have  slain  a  man  to  my  wounding,  and  a 
young  man  to  my  hurt.  If  Cain  shall  be  avenged  seven-fold, 
truly  Lamech  seventy  and  seven.  God.  who  was  all-wise  and 
merciful  and  changeth  not,  was  not  then  in  favor  of  capital  pun- 
ishment.    Lamech  confessed  to  murder,  and  Cain  denied  it. 

When  a  man  commits  murder  his  own  conscience  is  a  con- 
tinual tormentor  while  he  lives. 

When  the  state  hangs  a  man  she  sets  a  bad  example  to  her 
citizens,  and  need  not  expect  any  better  of  them.  Would  it  not 
be  far  better  to  let  a  murderer  be  a  servant  to  the  state  the 
balance  of  his  life,  and  give  the  proceeds  of  his  labor  to  the 
bereaved  ones  of  the  murdered  man? 

Think  of  eternal  punishment !  Has  the  state  or  any  indi- 
vidual a  right  to  send  any  one  there?  I  can  hardly  see  how 
Lazarus  could  be  so  happy  while  he  saw  Dives  and  heard  him 
calling  for  water  to  cool  his  parched  tongue.  And  how  ministers 
now  can  favor  sending  their  fellow-men  to  hell  does  not  agree 
with  the  teachings  of  Christ  who  said:  T  say  unto  you  that  ye 
resist  not  evil.  If  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him;  and  if  he 
thirst,  give  him  drink ;  for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of 
fire  upon  his  head." 

Now,  was  he  only  talking  to  his  chosen  twelve  and  allow- 
ing all  other  to  resist  evil?    This  seems  ridiculous;  the  New  Tes- 

—  77  — 


tament  was  given  to  the  world  of  men.  When  Cain  slew  his 
brother  would  have  been  the  ver\^  time  for  God  to  set  an  ex- 
ample of  capital  punishment,  if  he  had  thought  it  best. 

J.   H.  Ogilvie. 
104  Neil  Avenue,  Nashville,  Term. 


JOEL  B.  FORT  ON  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 
To  The  Editor  of  The  Democrat: 

The  article  of  Dr.  G.  A.  Lofton  in  Tuesday's  r)anner  causes 
me  to  come  forth  and  make  reply  for  the  simple  reason  that  such 
sentiment  as  therein  expressed  by  so  good  and  devout  a  man 
should  not  go  unchallenged. 

That  the  laws  of  the  liible  are  bloodthirsty  no  one  will  deny; 
that  the  rule  of  life  for  life  prevailed  then  goes  without  dispute ; 
but  the  question  is  not  whether  they  were  laws  then,  but  should 
such  laws  prevail  now  ? 

If  we  are  to  be  governed  by  the  law  of  life  for  life,  why  not 
also  follow  the  rule  of  its  execution?  God  gave  the  law,  so  the 
Bible  says,  and  told  the  Jews  how  to  execute  it. 

Cities  of  refuge  were  set  apart,  and  when  a  man  committed 
murder  and  outran  the  "avenger"  and  got  in  the  city  of  refuge 
safely,  then  he  could  have  a  trial ;  otherwise  the  avenger  was  to 
kill  him.  Does  any  one  think  such  a  law  just  or  right?  How 
many  oflfenses  were  punishable  with  death?  Just  think  of  the 
horror  of  it.  If  a  man  and  woman  were  caught  in  adultery  it 
was  not  a  trial  and  death,  but  they  were  stoned  to  death  by  a 
mob.  If  a  man's  wife  thought  to  change  her  religion  and  wor- 
ship any  other  God  but  the  God  of  the  Jews  her  husband  was 
directed  to  kill  her.  I  might  go  at  length  into  the  horrible  de- 
tails of  those  old  Jewish  laws,  but  it  is  not  necessary.  Our  own 
ancestors  brought  a  list  of  death  penalties  to  this  country  that 
would  shock  the  sensibilities  of  an  average  Tennessean — put  a 
man  in  jail  for  preaching  anything  but  the  orthodox  theory  of 
religion,  had  to  go  about  on  Sunday  with  a  look  of  sanctity  that 
was  frightful  and  forbidden  to  kiss  his  wife  or  babe  under  pen- 
alty of  the  law. 

Times  have  changed  and  laws  to  be  wholesome  and  beneficial 
must  bf*  changed  to  suit  the  times. 

—  78  — 


I  care  not  what  good  men  may  think  on  this  subject.  After 
practicing  law  in  the  courts  of  Tennessee  for  thirty  years  I  know 
that  today  human  hfe  is  held  more  sacred  than  at  any  time  in  all 
the  history  of  the  world.  So  true  is  this  that  it  is  hard  to  get  a 
jury  that  favors  inflicting  the  death  penalty. 

Talk  of  England  and  her  enforcement  of  the  law.  it  has  been 
but  a  few  score  of  years  since  there  were  more  than  a  hundred 
offenses  punishable  with  death,  and  for  years  it  was  a  nation  of 
king  and  queen  killers,  and  the  laws  there  are  no  better  enforced 
than  here  if  you  consider  the  difTerence  in  the  poi)ulation.  That 
is  an  old,  settled  country,  and  immigration  in  that  land  is  all  emi- 
gration ;  from  all  lands  come  the  lower  classes  to  this  country, 
and  of  course  we  have  a  liardcr  criminal  proposition  to  deal  with. 

There  is  only  one  justification  for  taking  the  life  of  an  indi- 
vidual in  our  law,  and  in  the  great  heart  of  justice  as  enthroned 
in  the  present  day  civilization,  and  that  is  in  necessary  self-defense. 
When  the  State  kills  a  man.  does  she  do  it  in  necessary  self- 
defense?  That  is  the  great  question.  I  don't  suppose  I  am  as 
good  a  man  as  Dr.  Lofton,  but  as  weak  and  imperfect  as  I  am, 
there  is  nothing  that  so  saddens  and  horrifies  me  as  all  the  cir- 
cumstances and  details  that  are  enacted  from  the  Criminal  Court 
to  the  hangman's  noose,  an  unfortunate  creature  with  the  day  and 
hour  .set  for  his  execution,  manacled  and  carried  to  the  dungeon, 
with  all  the  blood  of  his  victim  red  on  his  hands  and  reeking 
and  rankling  in  his  heart.  Ministers  are  sent  for  to  aid  him  in  his 
preparation  for  his  last  long  journey.  They  open  the  Book  and 
tell  him  of  the  two  roads,  one  leading  to  a  blissful,  eternal  life, 
and  another  leading  to  eternal  hell  fire  and  torment.  He  has  got 
to  take  one  or  the  other,  and  always  takes  the  heavenly  route.  A 
few  days  of  singing  and  praying  and  then  the  fatal  hour,  and  he 
is  consoled  by  the  good  men  while  the  black  cap  is  fastened  over 
his  eyes  and  he  is  sent  shooting  into  eternity. 

How  a  Christian  man  can  see  that  this  method  of  punishment 
is  just  and  Christian-like  passeth  my  understanding.  If  the  wolf 
is  not  all  out  of  humanity,  and  they  still  cry  for  blood  incited  on 
by  ministers  of  the  go.spel  of  Christ,  let  them  mob  the  culprit  as 
did  the  Jews  of  old,  and  let  the  State  set  the  example  of  reforma- 
tion by  life  imprisonment. 


But  the  Doctor  says:     "Sickly  sentimentalism  is  even  trying 

—  79  — 


to  change  the  penitentiary  into  a  mere  reformatory."  Now, 
doesn't  that  look  strange  for  so  good  a  man  to  condemn  the 
efforts  of  all  the  good  people  who  are  devoting  time  and  talent 
to  alleviate  the  condition  of  the  under-class  of  society?  I  have 
never  been  a  supporter  of  Governor  Hooper,  but  every  time  he 
does  anything  to  relieve  the  distress  of  these  unfortunates  I  feel 
kinder  to  him.  Sickly  sentimentalism.  Well,  I  am  glad  that  I 
am  sentimental  and  I  am  glad  that  I  have  a  forgiving  heart,  for 
it  is  written  "forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  those  who 
trespass  against  us." 

Most  astounding  of  all  I  see  in  the  article  is  this : 

"Those  who  rail  at  capital  punishment  for  those  who  murder 
God's  image,  rail  at  God,  and  make  Him  out  a  liar  and  a  tyrant 
of  archaic  ignorance  and  stupidity"  Now,  what  do  you  think  of 
that  ? 

A  good  man  comes  to  Nashville  at  his  own  expense  to  beg 
the  Legislature  to  repeal  this  brutal  law  of  Jewish  barbarism,  and 
he,  with  all  the  good  men,  Dr  Vance  included,  are  "railing  at  God 
and  making  him  out  a  liar"  But  the  pity  of  it  is  that  the  Doc- 
tor sees  that  we  are  growing  worse  all  the  time,  and  says, 
"and  yet  the  twentieth  century  has  not  changed  human  nature 
one  whit.  Vice  and  crime,  murder,  adultery,  divorce,  monopo- 
listic robbery,  gambling,  political  graft,  the  white  slave  trade,  the 
saloon  and  assignation  house  iniquity,  maladministration  of  jus- 
tice, lawlessness — all  this  and  more  is  on  the  increase  in  the 
twentieth  century." 

I  am  afraid  the  Doctor  is  growing  too  pessimistic,  for  a  truth 
I  can  see  that  the  world  has  grown  better  in  my  day.  If  what  he 
says  is  true,  what  profit  has  been  all  the  efforts  of  good  men  and 
good  women?  Away  with  such  an  idea!  We  are  climbing  higher 
up  the  mountain  and  are  leaving  the  putrid  bogs  farther  behind 
each  year.  Civilization  has  declared  against  war  of  concfuest,  and 
we  have  no  nation  which  would  stand  for  a  moment  to  see  a 
Joshua  go  uj)  and  murder  the  people  of  Ai  and  plunder  and  burn 
for  no  other  motive  than  because  those  ])eople  defended  their 
homes.  •' 


The  banner  of  the  Red  Cross  in  the  hands  of  Christian  women 
floats  on  every  battlefield,  and  tender  arms  are  outstretched  to 
every  uunfortunate  soldier  on  either  side  of  the  contest.     Tt  is 

—  80  — 


humanity  that  calls  for  help,  and  it  is  the  glorious  spirit  of  the 
advancing  age  of  civilization  that  is  everywhere  responding. 

Physicians  are  struggling  to  stamp  out  the  disease  that  num- 
bers its  victims  by  the  thousands,  and  right  in  your  own  city  is  a 
home  for  those  who  are  in  the  grip  of  the  great  white  plague. 
The  Governor  and  the  prison  officials  and  good  men  and  women 
are  at  work  on  the  convicts  in  penitentiary,  trying  to  make  them 
better.  Consecrated  men  and  women  are  baring  their  breast  to 
every  danger  in  every  clime,  all  working  for  the  uplift  of  human- 
ity ;  everywhere  orphan  asylums  managed  and  cared  for  by  patri- 
otic, Christian  men  and  women,  old  women's  homes,  old  soldiers' 
homes,  pensions  for  soldiers  on  their  crutches.  My !  my !  I  am 
glad  I  live  in  an  age  of  humanity,  when  there  is  not  so  much 
prating  about  the  tortures  of  an  endless  hell  of  fire  and  brim- 
stone, and  more  unselfish  labor  for  the  cause  of  suffering  human- 
ity. 

The  Doctor  says  further :  "Love  and  law  are  correlatives : 
love  alone  fulfills  or  keeps  the  law — it  is  love  that  insists  on 
vindicating  the  law."  This  kind  of  logic  may  well  be  advocated 
in  his  theology,  but  I  fear  the  Doctor  cannot  see  daylight  when  he 
puts  his  theories  in  practice  in  the  criminal  law  of  the  State. 
Keep  the  law  from  love !  Is  that  the  way  you  expect  the  law 
obeyed,  just  for  love,  and  when  a  man  doesn't  love  the  law  he 
won't  keep  it,  and|  he  outrages  a  beautiful  woman,  and  then  the 
State  from  love  hangs  him  higher  than  Ilaman. 

It  is  this  way :  An  honest  man  does  not  steal  because  he 
stands  above  the  law.  It  does  not  affect  him.  The  thief  is  be- 
neath, and  if  he  refrains  from  theft  it  is  not  for  love  of  the  law, 
but  for  fear  of  the  law.  So  with  nuirder.  I  love  the  life  of  my 
fellow-man  and  do  not  murder.  I  am  above  the  law,  and  all  the 
good  people  stand  above  the  law  and  are  trying  to  raise  others 
above  it,  and  they  are  reaching  down  and  helping  those  who  are 
in  the  underworld  to  a  higher  plane  and  to  a  new  and  better  life; 
and  so  the  tendency  is  in  prisons  to  make  the  culprit  an  honest 
and  good  man.  Is  this  sentimentalism.  If  it  is,  God  bless  all  the 
thousands  of  sentimentalists  who  are  today  fighting  for  the  uplift 
of  humanity ! 

The  minister  stands  every  Sunday  and  teaches  that  though 
the  sins  of  man  are  "as  scarlet"  and  of  the  darkest  and  deepest 
dye,  that  repentance  will  bring  forgiveness.     So  God  will  even 

—  81  — 


forgive  the  murderer  and  save  him  in  the  eternal  haven  of  hliss, 
the  wise  and  merciful  and  g-ood  God  who  knows  the  secrets  of  the 
heart,  will  do  this,  but  when  it  comes  to  the  State  of  Tennessee, 
she  must  not  forgive,  nor  even  confine  the  murderer  for  life  that 
he  may  have  time  to  remedy  and  repent  of  his  evil  deeds,  but 
must  cry  for  blood  and  must  send  the  murderer  from  this  to  an- 
other  world    in   a   disgraceful   manner. 

"And  thine  eye  shall  not  pity;  but  life  shall  go  for  life,  eye 
for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand,  and  foot  for  foot." 
(Deut.  xix..  Chap.  21.) 

Why !  I  do  not  believe  if  one  should  advocate  such  a  horrible 
and  barbaric  law  as  that  one  written,  it  is  said,  by  the  direction 
of  God,  in  this  progressive  age,  on  any  inquisition  for  lunacy  he 
would  safely  land  in  the  asylum  for  the  insane.  It  is  brotherly 
love  now ;  it  is  pity  for  the  unfortunate  now  ;  it  is  mercy  and 
charity  now  ;  and  with  such  grand  and  powerful  influences  coming 
from  these  virtues,  the  world  is  growing  better  and  is  becoming 
a  place  where  every  man  can  have  enjoyment  in  knowing  there 
is  work  for  him  to  do  in  raising  the  fallen,  cheering  the  faint  and 
ministering  to  the  unfortunate.  "Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for 
they  shall  obtain  mercy."  Joel  B.  Fort. 

Adams,  Tenii,^  February  13. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 

(Editorial  from  the  Nashville  Banner.) 

Mr.  Duke  C.  Bowers,  retired  merchant,  capitalist  and  hu- 
manitarian, has  brought  into  the  present  session  of  the  Legislature 
a  unique  interest  apart  from  politics  and  not  connected  with  other 
public  matters  to  which  the  attention  of  the  solons  has  been 
most  deeply  directed.  Mr.  Bowers  has  a  deep  conviction  that 
the  taking  of  human  life  is  wrong  and  not  to  be  justified  even 
though  it  be  in  the  form  of  legal  execution,  and  he  is  making  ^ 
very  energetic  efifort  to  have  the  Legislature  pass  a  bill  abolishing 
capital  punishment. 

The  remarkable  feature  of  his  work  is  that  it  is  purely  an  in- 
dividual efifort  and  does  not  come  from  any  humane  society  or 
other  organization  after  the  manner  that  such  movements  are 
usually  fostered.     Mr.  Bowers  makes  the  impression  that  he  is 

—  82  — 


very  much  in  earnest,  wholly  sincere,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  is  ahogether  disinterested.  The  nature  of  the  effort 
would  hardly  permit  an  interested  motive,  and  the  man  behind  it 
is  so  entirely  dissociated  with  politics  that  no  such  motive  can 
be  imag^ined.  It  is  indeed  rare  that  so  determined  an  endeavor 
is  made  in  behalf  of  the  supposed  public  good  by  an  individual  of 
his  own  initiative,  and  it  is  this  fact  that  gives  Mr.  Bower.-?'  ex- 
ertions in  behalf  of  the  bill  he  has  caused  to  be  introduced  a 
peculiar  interest.  He  has  at  least  succeeded  in  attracting  public 
attention  to  the  measure  and  has  brought  about  quite  a  warm 
discussion  of  its  merits  through  the  daily  press  and  otherwise. 

The  sixth  commandment  of  the  decalogiie  very  plainly  says, 
"Thou  shalt  not  kill."  This  was  given,  engraved  on  stone, 
directly  from  God  to  Moses  in  the  thunders  of  Sinai,  and  seems 
both  explicit  and  imperative,  but  some  liberal  translators  have 
made  it  read,  "Thou  shalt  do  no  murder,"  and  this  seems  war- 
ranted by  the  laws  laid  down  in  the  next  chapter,  Exodus  21  :i2, 
w'hich  says,  "He  that  smiteth  a  man  so  that  he  die.  shall  be  surely 
put  to  death."  and  the  death  penalty  is  also  prescribed  for  lesser 
offenses,  concluding  with  the  familiar  citation,  "Eye  for  eye, 
tooth  for  tooth,"  etc.  Still  this  was  under  the  old  dispensation. 
The  language  of  Jesus,  who  overthrew  the  doctrine  of  ven- 
geance and  taught  non-resistance  of  evil,  is  used  to  refute  it. 

This  is  the  manner  in  which  the  religious  argument  on  the 
subject  has  gone,  but  the  position  is  presented  in  practical  guise 
and  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter  is,  can  society  adequately  pro- 
tect itself  against  crime  if  the  terror  of  the  death  penalty  be  not 
before  the  eyes  of  the  evil-doer?  As  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  was 
wont  to  remark,  "Much  can  be  said  on  both  sides."  Much  has 
been  said  both  pro  and  con,  and  the  arguments  are  all  interesting 
and  enlightening,  if  not  wholly  convincing. 

This  much  is  certain,  the  offenses  for  which  capital  punish- 
ment is  prescribed  by  civilized  nations  have  very  much  diminished 
in  number,  and  crimes  formerly  so  punished  have  not  increased 
under  a  lighter  penalty.  It  was,  for  instance,  once  a  capital 
offense  to  steal  a  sheep  in  England,  and  more  sheep  were  stolen 
then  than  now. 

In  Tennessee  the  death  penalty  is  prescribed  only  for  two 
offenses,  murder  and  rape.  Both  certainly  deserve  the  utter  rigor 
of  the  law.     It  has  appeared  to  many  that  the  law  against  mur- 

—  83  — 


der  is  now  too  lightly  enforced.  At  least  there  have  been  too 
many  who  escaped  conviction  where  the  crime  was  flagrant  and 
the  evidence  convincing.  In  England  and  other  countries  where 
justice  is  surer,  murder  and  all  manner  of  homicides  are  much 
more  rare.  It  is  arg-ued  by  those  who  oppose  capital  punishment 
that  the  certainty  of  punishment  rather  than  its  severity  prevents 
crime.  'However  that  may  be,  assuredly  nothing  should  be  done 
that  would  have  any  tendency  to  increase  homicides  in  this  state. 
The  record  of  such  crimes  here  is  now  disgracefully  high  com- 
pared with  other  parts  of  the  world  where  the  criminal  laws  are 
better  enforced. 

The  proposed  abolition  of  the  death  penalty  for  rape  presents 
a  problem  peculiarly  incidental  to  conditions  in  this  section.  If 
it  should  be  abolished  lynchings  would  likely  increase.  The 
same  might  be  true  in  cases  of  very  heinous  murder. 

Capital  punishment  is  very  revolting  to  refined  sensibilities. 
The  world  today  will  not  permit  the  horrible  spectacle  of  a  pub- 
lic execution  on  which  in  the  past  gaping  crowds  made  gruesome 
holiday.  The  military  executions  and  pohtical  death  penalties 
with  which  history  abounds  are,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  a  barbarism 
that  is  entirely  past.  There  can  hardly  ever  be  a  recurrence  of 
the  horrors  of  the  guillotine.  Today  neither  Major  Andre,  Nathan 
Hale  or  Sam  Davis  would  be  put  to  death.  The  world  is  advanc- 
ing to  higher  thoughts  and  milder  practice  in  matters  of  this  kind, 
Init  the  conclusion  is  not  yet  fixed  that  Tennessee  can  better  its 
condition  by  abolishing  capital  punishment. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 


To  the  Editor  of  The  Banner: 

In  your  editorial  today,  entitled  "Capital  ]\mishment,"  you 
refer  very  kindly  to  me,  but  I  was  extremely  disappointed  when 
I  read  on  further  and  found  that  you  do  not  concur  with  me 
in  my  tight  to  abolish  the  death  penalty. 

Mr.  Gilbert's  bill  to  substitute  life  imi)risonment  for  the  death 
penalty  is,  to  my  mind,  one  of  the  most  important  bills  before 
the  Legislature.  The  decision  of  this  body  will  be  to  either  dis- 
continue this  barbarous  practice  or  else  in  effect  say  to  the  judges, 
juries  and  officers  of  this  state,  you  must  continue  murdering  the 
state's  enemies. 

—  84  — 


You  state  toi^  few  escape  conviction.  If  you  will  take  the 
trouble  to  look  u])  statistics.  y(3U  will  find  those  states  that  have 
abolished  the  death  ix-nalty  secure,  by  far,  more  convictions  than 
do  those  states  which  as  yet,  luifortunately,  have  not  abolished  it. 

If  the  abolishment  of  capital  punishment  would  cause  us  to 
have  an  increase  in  the  number  of  homicides,  then  there  might  be 
some  argument  in  favor  of  retaining  the  death  penalty.  But  no 
one  is  able  to  say  whether  there  would  be  an  increase  or  decrease. 
We  can,  however,  take  as  an  example  those  states  that  have  abol- 
ished the  death  penalty.  In  those  states  homicides  have  not  in- 
creased. And  a  fact  very  much  in  our  favor  is  that  during  the 
year  1909.  which  is  the  last  one  reported  by  the  United  States 
Mortality  Statistics,  there  were  more  than  twice  the  number  of 
homicides  in  the  states  that  retain  the  death  penalty  than  in  those 
states  that  have  abolished  it.  Now,  if  such  a  condition  is  a  mere 
"happen  so,"  it  is  certainly  a  peculiar  "happen  so."  It  surely  does 
give  us  reason  to  at  least  1)C  willing  to  give  the  life  imprisonment 
proposition  a  trial. 

As  regards  "lynchings  would  likely  increase."  That  is  an- 
other proposition  that  can  only  be  definitly  determined  by  trying 
the  life  imprisonment  plan.  To  my  way  of  thinking,  individ- 
uals will  come  nearer  having  respect  for  human  life  by  precept 
and  example  from  the  state  than  by  the  state's  committing  murder 
and  at  the  same  time  saying  to  its  citizens,  "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 

If  such  a  thing  as  the  fear  of  punishment  deters  rape,  it  is 
the  fear  of  the  mob  and  not  the  fear  of  the  gallows ;  but  I  doubt 
if  the  fear  of  the  mob  or  the  fear  of  the  gallow^s,  either,  ever 
enters  into  the  heads  of  those  of  that  vicious  class. 

Ex-Warden  Rice  states  "that  after  having  been  connected  with 
the  Tennessee  penitentiary  twenty  years  I  feel  that  any  man  of 
whatever  vicious  or  criminal  disj^osition  can  be  cured  under  the 
rigid  discipline  observed  by  the  officers  of  the  state."  If  there  is 
a  chance  to  cure  a  man.  then  isn't  it  a  crime  to  kill  him  and 
deprive  him  of  this  chance. 

If  it  is  a  crime  to  kill,  then  do  we  not.  as  citizens,  almost 
commit  a  crime  if  we  neglect  to  raise  our  voice  or  make  an  effort 
of  some  kind  to  tv}'  and  put  a  stop  to  this  legalized  murdering 
of  our  fellow-citizens. 

We  may  not  win  in  this  fight,  but  we  shall  at  least  be  con- 
soled with  the  thought  that  the  blood  of  these  pcx)r  unfortunate 

—  85  — 


liiiman  beings  would  not  be  on  our  bands  if  it  was  in  our  power 
to  sotp  it.  Duke  C.  Bowers. 

p_  s. — A  friend  told  me  tbat  Elbert  Hubbard  says  "that  so 
long  as  the  state  continues  to  kill  its  enemies,  individuals  are  going 
to  continue  killing  theirs."  B. 

Dresden,  February  9,  1913. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 

(Editorial  from  The  Public.  Mr.  Louis  F.  Post,  Editor.) 

Five  men  were  strangled  at  a  legalized  hanging  in  Chicago 
last  week.  The  gallows-trap  was  s])rung  by  the  peo])le  of  Illinois  ; 
for  it  is  true,  as  one  protestant  writes  to  his  newspaper,  that 
what  we  as  citizens  require  of  the  Sheriff,  in  conformity  with 
the  law  upon  our  statute  books  against  which  we  make  no  protest, 
nor  any  attempt  to  alter  or  abolish  it.  we  do  ourselves — all  of  us 
and  each  one  of  us. 

Xot  many  reasons  appear  for  perpetuating  these  barbarous 
laws.  One  of  them  is  that  the  hanging  of  murderers  is  neces- 
sary as  a  deterrent  of  murder.  The  weakness  of  that  excuse  is 
well  illustrated  in  this  very  case.  Swift  and  relentless  was  the 
law's  execution,  and  notorious  the  fact.  Yet  "hold-ups"  with 
deadly  weapons,  the  very  crime  in  committing  which  those 
hanged  men  had  resorted  to  murder  as  an  incident,  were  perpe- 
trated on  an  ambitious  scale  (and  under  circumstances  which 
made  murder  almost  an  incident  in  one  and  within  the  intention 
of  the  criminals  in  both)  twice  within  forty-eight  hours  after 
these  horrible  executions  and  within  the  sphere  of  their  influence. 
Lesfal  homicides  do  not  prevent  tho=e  that  are  illegal.  The  former 
foster  the  latter,  if  there  is  any  influence.  So  completely  is  this 
indicated  bv  experience  with  both,  that  it  is  difficult  any  longer  to 
consider  the  contrary  contention  as  at  once  in  good  faith  and 
intelligent.  As  an  argument  it  has  become  only  an  excuse  for 
that  real  motive  for  capital  punishment  which  is  rooted  in  the 
spirit  of  revenee — an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth.  If 
the  vicious  spirit  of  revenge  were  exercised,  and  love  for  morbid 
excitement  were  given  vent  through  some  less  brutal  sport,  all 
arguments  for  capital  punishment  as  a  preventive  of  crime  would 
be  abandoned. 

The  sentimentality  which  pities  the  murderer  on  a  gallows  re- 

—  S6  — 


gardless  of  his  crime,  is  bad  enough  to  be  sure ;  but  the  senti- 
mentality which  hangs  him  out  of  pity  for  his  victim  is  worse. 
If  the  one  is  spineless,  the  other  is  revengeful.  Xever  should  it 
be  forgotten  that  the  great  fact  which  tells  against  capital  punish- 
ment is  not  that  it  is  a  disagreeable  experience  for  the  murderer, 
but  that  where  tolerated  it  is  degrading  to  the  community  lx)th  in- 
dividuallv  and  collectivelv. 


STATES  OBJECTION  TO  DEATH  PENALTY. 

J.  E.  McCulloch.  General  Secretary  of  the  Southern  Sociologi- 
cal Congress,  has  written  the  following  reply  to  a  query  by  Duke 
C.  Bowers  as  to  his  stand  on  the  question  of  capital  punishment : 

"Dear  Mr.  Bowers :  I  hasten  to  reply  to  your  query  in  re- 
gard to  my  ideas  on  capital  punishment,  and  state  that  I  am 
opposed  to  the  death  penalty ;  first,  because  it  is  unworthy  and 
barbarous  for  a  civilized  state  to  practice  revenge;  second,  because 
statistics  do  not  justify  the  conclusion  that  capital  punishment  de- 
ters crime;  third,  because  the  state  has  no  moral  right  to  destroy 
human  life — only  God.  who  gives  life,  has  the  right  to  take  it; 
fourth,  because  the  chief  function  of  the  state  is  to  save  and  im- 
prove life — whereas  capital  punishment  arbitrarily  cuts  off  all 
possibility  of  reform  ;  fifth,  because  crime  at  worst  is  a  symptom 
of  social  disease  rather  than  simply  the  result  of  individual  wrong- 
doing— the  real  crime  is  in  our  social  conditions  that  make  it  pos- 
sible for  a  murderer  to  be  reared  at  all." — Nashi'tllc  Tcnncsscan 
and  Atnerican. 


EDITORIAL  FROM  THE  MARTIN  MAIL. 

All  honor  to  Duke  C.  Bowers,  the  man  that  is  not  afraid  to 
do  things.  If  the  bill  to  abolish  capital  punishment  in  Tennessee 
does  not  become  a  law  he  has  not  failed,  for  the  work  he  has 
done  will  be  as  bread  cast  upon  the  waters  to  return  many  days 
hence.  He  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  L'nion  in  his  fight 
for  the  uplift  of  humanity — the  abolishing  of  capital  punishment. 
It  has  caused  men  to  put  on  their  thinking  caps,  and  dig  deep 
into  the  history  of  capital  punishment.  It  is  true  that  there 
are  man  that  are  opposed  to  the  abolition,  but  there  are  more, 
yea,  hundreds  to  one.  that  favor  the  abolishing  of  capital  punish- 
ment. It  is  just  and  right.  The  old  law.  "an  eye  for  an  eye  and 
a  tooth  for  a  tooth,"  is  of  prehistoric  days — the  old  Mosaic  laws. 

—  87  — 


and  none  of  those  hold  good  today.  Why  take  life — it  is  murder 
— whether  done  by  the  law  or  the  individual.  It  is  better  to  for- 
give them  ninety  and  nine  times.  Men  that  in  the  heat  of  passion 
have  slain  their  fellow-man  can  and  will  become  great  and  good 
citizens  if  given  a  chance,  but  with  a  hangman's  noose  there  is 
no  chance.  Man's  humanity  to  man  cries  out  for  the  abolition  of 
the  law.  Will  the  gentlemen  from  Weakley  County  and  every 
other  county  in  the  state  take  notice? 

During  1909  the  average  number  oi  homicides  committed  to 
the  one  hundred  population  was : 

Maine    i.i  No  capital  punishment. 

Massachusetts 2.4  Capital  punishment  obtains. 

Xew  Hampshire 1.4  Capital  punishment  obtains. 

Rhode  Island   .  .' 2.6  No  capital  punishment. 

Connecticut   3.9  Capital  punishment  obtains. 

New  York    3.8  Capital   punishment  obtains. 

Michigan   2.2  No  capital  punishment. 

Ohio    5.1  'Capital  punishment  obtains. 

Indiana    5.3  Capital  punishment  obtains. 

Wisconsin    1.8  No  capital  punishment. 

South  Dakota   4.7  Capital  punishment  obtains. 

Colorado    10.7  Capital  punishment  obtains. 


CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT. 


EDITORIAL  FROM    LAFALI.ETT  S    MACAZINP:. 

"Do  you  believe  in  capital  punishment?"  asked  a  L'nited  Press 
reporter  over  the  telephone  a  few  days  ago.  The  occasion  for 
the  "interview"  was  that  seven  men  were  to  meet  death  in  the 
electric  chair  at  Sing  Sing  and  that  two  prisoners  were  con- 
demned to  be  hanged  here  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

Some  way  I  cannot  get  accustomed  to  the  fact  that  the  law 
and  practice  that  prevails  in  the  District  of  Columbia  are  so  apt 
to  be  an  example  of  unenlightenment.  They  are  subject  to  the 
revision  of  Congress,  and  if  there  is  a  place  where  capital  pun- 
ishment should  not  exist,  it  is  here  in  sight  of  the  capital  dome. 

I  do  not  object  to  the  death  penalty  because  I  think  it  such 
a  terrible  thing  for  the  individuals  to  whom  it  is  administered, 
provided   they  are  guilty  of  deliberate   murder.     Thousands  of 

—  88  — 


innocent  people  die  daily  from  wrecks,  drowning,  and  catas- 
trophes of  all  kinds,  who  snffer  more,  ilistory  i^ives  many  ex- 
amples of  men  and  women  wh(j-liave  met  the  headsman  with  a 
jest.  And  observers  say  that  the  average  man.  when  he  goes  to 
his  execution  usually  keeps  his  nerve,  even  to  eating  a  good  break- 
fast.    Nature  prepares  us  all  for  the  inevitable  end. 

Rut  capital  punishment  is  a  survival  of  barbarism  and  its 
existence  is  contrary  to  the  l)est  thought  and  practice  of  modern 
civilization.  The  old  idea  was  that  it  was  humanly  possible  to 
retaliate  a  crime,  and  to  mete  out  justice  to  the  criminal;  that 
penalties  of  great  severity  served  as  a  warning  and  were  a 
preventative  of  crime. 

It  is  said  we  need  go  back  only  one  hundred  years  to  find 
two  hundred  offenses  punishable  by  death  under  the  English 
law.  \\'ithin  twenty  years  there  were  seventeen  offenses  sub- 
ject to  death  i)enalty  under  the  civil  code  of  the  I'nited  States. 
The  extreme  penalty  did  not  obviate  these  lesser  crimes  nor 
does  it  deter  murder.  Tn  our  country  today  the  extremely  small 
number — something  like  two  per  cent  1  think  il  is — of  executions, 
as  compared  with  the  number  of  nuu-ders,  must  give  the  hard- 
ened criminal  great  confidence  in  his  chances  of  escape.  .Vnd 
as  for  those  who  commit  murder  in  the  heat  of  passion,  they 
take  no  thought  of  consequences ;  the  large  number  of  those  who 
thus  kill,  who  turn  and  commit  suicide,  or  give  themselves  over 
to  the  law,  shows  how  little  the  fear  of  death  influences  their 
acts. 

If  cai)ital  punishment  is  to  deter  crime  it  should  be  admin- 
istered in  its  most  revolting  form  and  given  the  widest  possible 
publicity.  ( )nly  a  few  vears  ago.  hangings  were  witnessed  by 
thousands  of  spectators.  The  practice  no  longer  prevails.  The 
public  is  excluded.  .Vnd  whatever  deterrent  effect  there  is  from 
execution,  is  produced  by  the  filtered  newspaper  accounts,  rhere 
is  a  growing  sentiment  against  these  news  features.  It  is  well 
recognized  that  these  recitals  suggest  many  crimes  where  one  is 
prevented.  The  substitution  of  the  electric  chair  for  the  gallows 
was  to  lesson  the  horror  of  capital  punishment.  In  that  degree 
it  diminishes  its  deterrent  effect. 

In  view  of  the  change  in  sentiment  which  demands  that  execu- 
tions shall  be  as  i)rivate  and  free  from  terror  as  possible,  the 
only  argument   that   remains   for   the   death   sentence,   is   that   it 

—  89  — 


relieves  society  of  the  burden  of  support  of  the  criminal  and,  per- 
haps, that  it  is  easier  for  one  who  has  committed  murder  not  to 
have  his  life  prolonged.  But  this  reasoning  applies  equally  to 
many  crimes,  for  which  capital  punishment  has  been  abolished — 
rape,  for  instance. 

Some  wardens  say  that  life  prisoners,  particularly  those  who 
have  committed  murder  under  extenuating  circumstances,  who 
perhaps  might  never  again  violate  the  law,  are  much  less  a  men- 
ace than  those  habituated  to  lesser  crimes — professionals  so  to 
speak. 

Broader  understanding  of  the  cause  of  crime  and  responsi- 
bility for  it,  is  tending  slowly  to  revolutionize  the  plan  of  dealing 
with  it.  The  higher  authorities  recognize  that  the  struggle  is 
social,  not  individual;  that  retaliation  and  retributive  justice  is 
impossible  and  the  attempt  to  administer  it,  does  not  lessen  the 
evil-doing.  Anyone  who  stops  to  think,  must  realize  that  a 
definite  amount  of  punishment  cannot  be  measured  out  for  a  speci- 
fic ofifence  and  that  there  are  many  long  sentences,  even  life 
sentences  that  might  be  more  safely  suspended  than  to  permit 
the  habitual  ofifenders — the  incurables— to  go  free  at  the  ex- 
piration of  terms  as  fixed  by  inflexible  statutes. 

Investigation  and  experience  have  proved,  what  common  sense 
ought  always  to  have  told  us,  that  solitary  confinement,  or  worse, 
promiscuous  herding  of  criminals  in  idleness  and  under  harsh 
conditions,  makes  the  savage  more  savage,  and  destroys  the  hope 
of  improving  those  not  wholly  degraded. 

Humane  and  scientific  conditions  in  places  of  detention — sun- 
light, air,  cleanliness,  and  methods  of  reformation — regular  em- 
ployment in  healthful  and  varied  and  useful  occupations,  with 
a  degree  of  compensation  as  an  incentive  together  with  inde- 
terminate sentences,  boards  for  pardon,  probation,  are  all  indica- 
tions of  the  changed  attitude  of  society  toward  those  convicted 
of  violations  of  the  law.  Society  is  beginning  to  recognize  its 
responsibility  for  crime  and  its  obligation  to  at  least  administer 
the  law  so  that  its  operation  will  not  further  degrade  the  of- 
fenders. It  is  wise  economy — even  though  the  first  cost  be 
somewhat  greater — to  direct  the  effort  formerly  expended  in 
"punishment"  of  those  imprisoned  to  fitting  them  to  live  and 
to  earn  a  living,  so  they  may  return  to  the  world  better  prepared 
to  cope  with  temptation  and  with  less  likelihood  of  being  a 
further  menace  to  society. 

—  90  — 


CAPITAL  PUXISHMENT. 

Editor  Tennessean  and  American : 

In  The  Tennessean  and  American  of  January  29  I  see  my  old 
friend  McKinney  and  others  have  introduced  a  bill  in  the  Senate 
to  abolish  ca])ital  punishment  in  Tennessee.  I  am  sure  this  is  a 
step  in  the  rig^ht  direction,  and  will  be  encourajj^ed,  and  doubtless 
will  receive  the  full  ajjproval  of  a  majority  of  the  best  people 
of  the  state.  When  a  child  at  my  mother's  knee,  beinij  instructed 
in  the  cardinal  principles  that  enter  into  this  life,  the  obedience  or 
the  disobedience  of  which  brinj^s  lii(ht,  joy  and  sunshine,  or  dark- 
ness and  shadow  in  our  path,  she  pointed  me  to  the  law  of  which, 
which  says :    "Thou  shalt  not  kill." 

Under  her  guidance  I  made  u])  my  mind  in  early  life  that 
capital  punishment  was  wrong,  for  if  I  did  not  have  the  right  to 
kill  under  God's  law  and  also  under  the  laws  of  my  state,  then 
the  state  did  not  have  the  right  to  deliberately  and  coolly  murder 
one  of  her  citizens. 

Under  the  law  of  Moses  it  was  "an  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth."  but  we  are  living  in  the  light  of  the  Christian  era, 
and  God  says,  "vengeance  is  mine ;  I  will  repay,  sayeth  the  Lord 
God."'  Under  the  Jewish  law  a  man  was  stoned  to  death  for 
picking  up  sticks  on  the  seventh  day  of  the  week.  Xow,  in  the 
noonday  splendor  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  we  tnay  gather 
all  the  brush  on  the  Lord's  day  that  we  wish  to,  and  we  have  done 
no  harm  and  have  violated  no  principle.  We  are  living  under 
the  law  of  love,  and  should  do  unto  others  as  we  would  have 
them  do  unto  us. 

I  shall  be  glad  if  Mr.  McKinney  gets  his  bill  through  the  Leg- 
islature and  our  dear  old  state  will  quit  murdering  her  citizens, 
and  let  those  who  commit  first  degree  murder,  repent  all  the  rest 
of  their  days. 

J.  C.  Humphreys. 

Bells.  Tenn. 


—  91  — 


COPY  OF  A  CIRCULAR  I  DELIVERED  TO  THE  HOUSE 

OF  REPRESENTATRES  THE  MORNING  OF 

THE  DAY  THE  BILL  TO  ABOLISH  CAPITAL 

PUNISHMENT  WAS  VOTED  ON. 

ADDRESS    BY    D.    C.    BOWERS. 

To  the  Honorable  Members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  Fifty-eighth  General  Assembly  of  Ten- 
nessee : 

In  your  hands  today  is  placed  the  Hfe  and  death  of  the  future 
unfortunates  accused  of  capital  offenses  in  this  state. 

If  you  keep  the  death  penalty  on  the  statute  books,  the  judge, 
the  jury  and  the  executioner,  if  they  keep  sacred  their  oaths, 
have  got  to  follow  your  edicts. 

An  ex-sheriff  told  me  he  had  to  hang  two  men  while  he  was 
in  office ;  that  he  was  opposed  to  capital  punishment,  yet  he  hanged 
those  men  because  it  was  the  law. 

A  present  attorney-general  of  this  state,  who  believes  in  the 
enforcement  of  all  the  laws  made  by  you  gentlemen  and  your 
predecessors,  says  that  he  prosecutes  capital  offenses  because 
it  is  his  duty,  but  he  wishes  that  the  death  penalty  was  done 
away  with. 

Gentlemen,  there  would  be  mighty  little  chance  of  any  of  us 
getting  to  heaven  if  merit  was  the  only  route. 

If  we  get  there,  there  will  have  to  be  some  mercy  shown  us. 

We  cannot  afford  to  be  merciful  to  only  those  who  are  guilty 
of  the  same  things  we  have  been  guilty  of.  God  Almighty  has 
not  been  guilty  of  any  of  our  sins,  yet  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  He 
is  going  to  be  merciful  unto  us.  . 

Our  sins  are  as  horrible  to  Him  as  the  criminal's  are  to  us. 

Don't  you  believe  as  we  spare  others  He  will  spare  us? 

l^lease  give  this  Anti-Capital  Punishment  Bill  your  most  care- 
ful consideration,  and  ask  yourself  if  you  can  afford  to  take  the 
responsibility  of  voting  to  retain  a  law  that  means  the  taking  of 
a  human  life. 

You  don't  want  the  stain  of  human  blood  on  your  hands,  do 
you  ? 

Most  respectfully, 

Duke  C.  Bowers. 

—  92  — 


PENALTY  OF  DEATH  STANDS. 

By  a  vote  of  56  to  36  the  House  of  Representatives  yesterday 
afternoon  rejected  the  Gilbert  bill  to  abolish  the  death  penalt> 
in  Tennessee,  and  tabled  a  motion  to  reconsider  their  action.  The 
defeat  of  the  bill  in  the  House  means,  beyond  doubt,  that  so  far 
as  the  present  Legislature  is  concerned  the  death  penalty  will  re- 
main in  force,  in  spite  of  the  vigorous  light  waged  against  it  by 
Duke  C.  Bowers  and  others. 

The  decision  of  the  House  was  reached  after  the  longest  de- 
bate of  the  session,  extending  through  both  the  morning  and  after- 
noon sessions  of  the  House. 

The  bill  was  taken  up  as  a  special  order  at  1 1  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  and  a  vote  was  not  taken  until  nearly  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon. 

Mr.  Gilbert,  in  moving  the  adoption  of  the  bill,  said  crime  had 
been  on  the  increase  in  Tennessee  because  of  lack  of  law  enforce- 
ment. 

Mr.  Raulston  declared  that  the  advocates  of  the  bill  ap])eale(l 
for  sympathy  for  the  criminals. 

Dr.  Boyer,  who  as  sheriff  of  Cocke  County  hung  two  men,  and 
the  only  two  men  ever  legally  hung  in  that  county,  spoke  for  the 
abolition  of  capital  punishment. 

"Those  two  men  were,  like  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred 
men,  poor  and  without  money.  That  is  why  I  am  opposed  to 
capital  punishment — the  law  is  not  enforced,  as  it  stands,  equally 
upon  all  classes  alike,  if  there  was  equal  enforcement  of  the  law 
I  would  support  it.  There  is  a  law  for  the  rich  and  one  for  the 
poor." 

Mr.  Winchester  spoke  for  the  bill  as  a  progressive  measure. 

Mr.  Stone,  of  Lincoln,  closed  the  argument  for  the  bill.  His 
argument  was  general,  covering  the  entire  subject.  He  attacked 
the  theories  in  support  of  the  practice,  and  cited  the  statistics, 
showing  that  one  innocent  man  is  known  to  have  been  hanged 
in  the  United  States  each  three  years. 

At  the  afternoon  session  the  discussion  of  the  bill  was  re- 
sumed. Mr.  Mullens  argued  against  the  bill,  and  was  followed 
by  Mr.  Todd,  also  against  the  bill. 

Mr.  Todd  declared  that  the  fact  that  it  was  difficult  to  enforce 
the  law  was  no  reason  for  abolishing  it.  He  attacked  Mr.  Stone's 
argument.  Pie  argued  especially  along  the  line  of  protection 
from  rapists. 

—  93  — 


j\Ir.  Wilson,  declaring  that  Mr.  Todd  had  been  appealing  to 
prejudice  and  passion  and  nothing  else,  strongly  supported  the 

bill.  i  =i; 

Mr.  Spears  made  a  powerful  appeal  against  the  bill.  He  de- 
clared that  sympathy  for  the  criminal  was  obscuring  the  interests 
of  the  state. 

Mr.  Rickman  spoke  against  the  bill,  declaring  for  law  en- 
forcement. Doing  away  with  the  gallows  would  add  ten-fold  to 
crime,  he  said. 

The  previous  question  was  called  for  and  carried. 
The  bill  was  defeated — 56  to  36.    A  motion  to  reconsider  was 
tabled. 

The  detailed  vote  on  tlie  i)ill  follows : 

Aye — Abernathy,  Bejach.  Royer,  Byroni,  Chamlee,  Childs. 
Collier,  of  Sumner,  Dannel.  Dorsey,  Emert,  Fleeman,  Fox.  Gil- 
bert, Hill,  Kirkpatrick,  LeFever,  Link,  Love,  Malone,  McCormick, 
IMcFarland,  ^filler,  of  Lauderdale,  Mitchell,  O'Brien,  Park, 
Parkes,  Pierce.  Royston,  Shaw.  Stephenson,  Stone,  of  Lincoln, 
Taylor,  of  Jefferson.  Walker,  Weldon,  W^illiamson,  Winchester. 
Total,  36. 

No — Acree,  Albright,  Argo,  Ausmus.  Babb,  Barnett,  Bryant, 
Bullard,  Campbell,  Cardwell,  Cochran,  Collier,  of  Humphreys, 
Cox,  Creswell,  Davis,  Denton,  Drane,  Duncan,  Dunn,  Fisher, 
Fuller,  Gallagher,  Green,  Harpole,  Henderson,  Hughes,  Hunt, 
Johnson,  of  Madison,  Johnson,  of  Shelby,  Long,  Matthews, 
Alayes,  Miller,  of  Marshall,  Moore,  Morris,  Mullens,  Murphy, 
Myers,  Nichols,  Ouenichet,  Raulston,  Rickman,  Riggins.  Roberts, 
Robinson,  Scott,  Schmittou,  Smith,  Spears,  Taylor,  of  Madison, 
Testerman,  Thompson,  Todd,  West,  Wilson,  Stanton.  Total,  56. 
— Nashville  Tenncssean  and  American. 

KILLING  OF  \.\\\  FROWNED  UPON. 


The  Duke  Bower's  bill,  which  he  worked  so  faithfully  and  so 
hard  for  was  killed  in  the  House  Wednesday,  by  a  vote  of  56  to 
36,  showing  conclusively  that  Tennessee  is  not  ready  to  join  the 
progressive  states  of  the  union.  The  Senate  Judiciary  Committee 
recommended  the  rejection  of  the  bill  in  the  Senate.  Thus  flies 
the  hopes  of  good  and  true  men,  who  worked  indefatigably  for 
the  abolition  of  capital  punishment  in  Tennessee.  — Editoral, 
Mar  tin  Mail. 

—  94  — 


REJECTED. 

After  an  arduous  and  expensive  campaign  covering  the  whole 
time  the  Legislature  was  in  session  from  the  first  Monday  in 
January  until  the  226.  of  February,  Mr.  Duke  C.  Bowers,  of 
Memphis  and  Dresden,  saw  his  bill  to  abolish  capital  punishment 
in  Tennessee  defeated  by  much  larger  odds  than  he  was  prepared 
to  expect. 

Prompted  by  humanity  alone,  Mr.  Bowers  spent  several  weeks 
in  Nashv41e  working  to  pursuade  members  of  the  Legislature  that 
legal  murder  is  not  good  for  the  country,  and  at  one  time  he 
seemed  considerably  encouraged  that  our  law-makers  would  abol- 
ish what  he  considers  but  a  relic  of  barbarism  and  substitute  what 
he  considers  a  more  effective  means  toward  the  redemption  of 
ihe  bodies  and  souls  of  men.  All  honor  to  Mr.  Bowers  who  has 
done  as  noble  and  deserving  work  as  though  he  had  carried  his 
point  in  more  legislatures  than  one.  Unselfishly  he  spent  his  time 
and  his  money  laboring  for  that  which  he  deeply  believed  would 
meet  the  approval  of  Him  who  tempers  justice  with  mercy,  notes 
the  sparrow's  fall  and  doeth  all  things  well.  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  the  states  having  capital  punishment  show  the  greater  num- 
ber of  homicides  it  seemed  to  us  that  a  trial  of  Mr.  Bowers'  plan 
might  safely  be  tried  in  Tennessee. — Editorial,  Lexington  (Tcnn.) 
Progress. 


FIGHT  NOT  ENDED.  SAYS  DUKE  C.  BOWERS. 

Duke  C.  Bowers,  who  was  behind  the  bill  to  abolish  capital 
punishment  in  Tennessee,  which  failed  in  the  present  General 
Assembly,  sends  the  Democrat  the  following  letter : 

To  the  Editor  of  The  Democrat : 

It  seems  a  pity  to  me  that  presumably  good  men  construe  the 
Scriptures  in  such  a  way  as  to  cause  them  to  believe  that  the 
state  is  justifiable  in  taking  a  human  life.  The  horribleness 
of  the  thing  itself  is  enough  to  condemn  it,  regardless  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  law  of  mercy  and  love  as  taught  by  Jesus. 

As  to  whether  the  world  is  growing  better  or  worse  has  noth- 
ing to  do  with  the  awfulness  of  hanging  or  electrocuting  a  man. 
He  is  some  mother's  boy ;  he  has  sinned,  that  is  true,  yet  to  hang 
him  is  only  doing  the  worst  thing  the  state  can  do  to  him.  The 
crime  can't  be  undone  by  taking  the  offender's  life;  nothing  that 

—  95  — 


society  can  do  can  heal  the  wounds  of  the  hijured  one ;  hence 
where  is  the  common  sense  in  making^  other  wounds,  in  bring- 
ing double  disgrace  on  the  parents,  brothers,  sister  and  possibly 
wife  and  children  of  the  offender? 

Any  man  that  reads  the  New  Testament  knows  "for  whoso- 
ever shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet  offend  in  one  point,  he 
is  guilty  in  all."  How  such  a  man  can  feel  that  he  is  able  to  sit 
in  judgment  and  cast  the  first  stone  is  something  beyond  my  un- 
derstanding. 

"There  is  one  lawgiver,  who  is  able  to  save  and  destroy :  who 
art  thou  that  judgest  another?" 

Surely  you  are  too  enlightened  to  feel  "God,  I  thank  Thee 
that  I  am  not'  as  other  men." 

"Let  not  him  which  eateth  not,  judge  him  that  eateth." 

"Love  worketh  not  ill  to  his  neighbor,  therefore  love  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  law." 

"If  we  love  one  another  God  dwelleth  in  us." 

"He  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  has  seen,  how  can 
he  love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen?" 

To  my  mind  the  following  scripture  sums  up  nearly  the  whole 
of  Christianity,  and  there  is  no  capital  punishment  taught  in  it. 
Read  carefully.  "And  as  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you, 
do  ye  also  to  them  likewise.  For  if  ye  love  them  which  love  you, 
what  thank  have  ye?  for  sinners  also  love  those  that  love  them. 
And  if  ye  do  good  to  them  which  do  good  to  you,  what  thank 
have  ye?  for  sinners  also  do  even  the  same.  And  if  ye  lend  to 
them  of  whom  ye  hope  to  receive,  what  thank  have  ye?  for  sin- 
ners also  lend  to  sinners,  to  receive  as  much  again.  But  love  ye 
your  enemies  and  do  good,  and  lend,  hoping  for  nothing  again ; 
and  your  reward  shall  be  great,  and  ye  shall  be  children  of  the 
Highest ;  for  He  is  kind  unto  the  unthankful  and  to  the  evil.  Be 
ye  therefore  merciful,  as  your  Father  is  also  merciful.  Judge  not, 
and  ye  shall  not  be  judged;  condenm  not,  and  ye  shall  not  be 
condemned ;  forgive  and  ye  shall  be  forgiven  :  Give  it  and  it  shall 
be  given  unto  you  ;  good  measure,  pressed  down,  and  shaken  to- 
gether, and  running  over,  shall  men  give  unto  your  bosom.  For 
with  the  same  measure  that  ye  mete  withal  it  shall  be  measured 
to  you  again." 

If  I  am  wrong  in  my  fight  to  abolish  the  death  penalty,  then 

—  96  — 


it  is  wronc;  to  be  merciful.     It  my  fiijht  to  save  the  criniiii:ir>  life 
is  wronj^,  then  the  law  of  love  is  wrous^. 

If  I  myself  was  without  sin  then  maybe  I  could  see  this  ihiui,'- 
differently,  but  I  am  weak;  I  try  to  be  ^i>o(\.  but  it  kxjks  like  the 
harder  I  try  the  worse  1  fail.  Hence  my  only  hope  for  life  eternal 
is  doino;  good  for  others,  helpino"  the  unfortunate  and  trying  to 
.save  the  lives  of  misguided  men.  Therefore  my  fight  to  al)olish 
the  death  penalty  is  not  ended,  and  the  abusive  language  heajK-d 
upon  me  by  some  of  the  opponents  to  the  measure  is  not  going 
to  stop  me.  "I  am  not  bound  to  win.  but  I  am  bound  to  be  true. 
I  am  not  bound  to  succeed,  but  1  am  bound  to  live  up  to  what 
light  T  have." 

Di'Ki-:  C.  IJowi'.Ks. 

Dresden.  Tcnn.,  February  28. 


—  i)! 


1 


..</; 


01        

T   BINDER 

cuse,  N.   Y 
kion,  Cali 


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3  1158  00995  0766 


University  of  Ca. 
^      Southern  Regi, 
Library  Pacii 


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